IV #3
"Exactly!" Goran sounded pleased. "Insulin obtained that way is pure and can serve as a substitute until the one from the laboratory is made."
"And how much insulin can be drawn that way? And are there any problems for the donor?" Nika asked as she looked around the room.
"The donor shouldn't have any problems. We don't interfere with the body's function, we only take a small part, and the wound should heal very quickly. The problem is…" Vlasta paused, because the next part wasn't easy to say, "that the amount of insulin obtained from one injection isn't enough."
"What do you mean?" Goran was curious.
"Well, when you remove the blood, plasma, fats, and other substances from the injection, from one drawn dose you can get only a small part of the insulin solution. Maybe a third of the needed dose."
"Ugh…" Nick stirred while the people murmured. "That won't go over easily with people."
"Yes," Vlasta confirmed Nick's words and began flipping through some papers on the table.
"Why?" Erik asked, surprising the gathered.
Vlasta turned her head and took his hand, which he'd until then kept on her shoulder. She gently explained to him:
"Because people don't like being dug into. That's why blood donors are rare and blood is always needed. Which reminds me…" She quickly wrote something on one of the papers on the table. "But to continue. People won't want to donate insulin in an unpleasant process that takes about fifteen minutes."
"Well then it should be explained to them," Erik added.
"Yes, that gets you a certain portion of donors. If we have about ten people who need a daily dose of insulin, we need hundreds of donors to extract enough insulin for those people."
"So, people have to be made to donate," Erik said pragmatically.
Nick crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.
"If you force people into something they're not ready for, they'll rebel. Remember the pandemic a few years ago. How many people refused vaccination at any cost?"
"Ugh." Erik nodded, finally understanding. Then he withdrew behind Vlasta, who took his large hand in hers.
"Erik is right. People have to be made to donate."
"How?" Nick looked at the gathered. "I'm sure those present wouldn't object to the procedure, because the process is clear to them." Suddenly he fell silent when the solution occurred to him: "That's it, the process has to be explained to people."
He went up to Nika and took her hand, surprising her a little. "And who'd be better at that than the girl whose voice they've already learned to listen to." He smiled at her charmingly.
"Wait." Nika pulled her hand from his and withdrew. "I have far too much work, aren't there other people?" She looked at the gathered. Finally Vlasta spoke up:
"I think Nick is right. People recognize your voice as positive. And your call will be accepted by many who want to help."
"And to attract as many donors as possible, offer them, say, double portions of food," Nick added optimistically.
Nika wrung her fingers. She had so much work and now they were giving her this too. She wavered for a few moments, but then nodded. She asked Vlasta:
"How many people are needed for donating?"
"As many as possible. Hundreds, and ideally everyone in the shelter. If everyone donated, then we'd have enough until production starts."
Nika nodded, but persuading the whole shelter to donate insulin was a problem. Still, she'd give herself over to instinct and dictate from her head what she'd heard, and try to motivate people to donate. Nick seemed relaxed and offered:
"Here, I'm here and ready to be the first donor. Where do I sign?" He smiled.
"Oh no, we need doctors and nurses, equipment, I can't do it alone," Vlasta now began to complain.
Nika quickly headed off into the laboratory before someone loaded that on her back too.
She had so much work, and new work only kept piling up.
For God's sake, she was a botanist, not an announcer.
She should be dealing with things she understood, not rallying people.
Questions swarmed in her head as she walked through the laboratory.
Didn't they have a guild in charge of morale?
Wasn't that their job? She began to get angry.
She leaned on the table with notes in the middle of the laboratory.
She huffed angrily, but soon calmed. There was no use in anger, not now.
It was all mapped out anyway. Goran would work in the laboratory and train people to work in it, the farm's construction was arranged, and Ivan and Denis were on the job.
Actually, when she took a better look at the situation, she had no other work except to try to help Vlasta and motivate people to donate insulin.
That was, in any case, a situation that should be resolved urgently.
She lifted her gaze and noticed Goran entering the laboratory with people and doing exactly what she would have done.
He was leading people toward the analyzers and starting his explanations.
She was glad to see the project finally moving into realization, so she stepped away from the table and headed toward the staircase.
A long climb to the P.A. room awaited her, and the day was no younger.