Finding the cure was not the World Government's top priority. However, they are interested in genetic enhancement. No matter if it enhanced immunity or gained special power like devil fruits as long as it would control people to obey the government without fail. There will be a total peace.
There will be no need for military forces. There will be no pirates. There will be no one interested in finding the secrets of the void. The will of D will be forgotten. There is no need for One Piece but just one person to rule them all.
If it weren't for the Revolutionary Army, the members of the Reverie would not question the government favoring the military over medical experts. To answer them, the government paid Morgan to post an article on the Vegapunk-Vinsmoke project.
In the front page of the World Economy News Paper, there is a big picture of Vegapunk with the Vinsmoke family. Judge Vinsmoke introduced himself as an expert in gene enhancement and proudly introduced his children who had undergone successful modifications. Vegapunk, on the other hand, explained the facts on devil fruits and their abilities. Combining their expertise, they hope to find a breakthrough to cure any diseases.
Vegapunk mentioned that the captain of the Strawhats is currently helping them with the research. The captain donated blood samples and volunteered to test his vulnerability to covid. Vegapunk has not received any reports from Strawhats and yet, he found no evidence of slowdowns in their travel, seeing it as a promising result. Nevertheless, Vegapunk will continue to contact the Strawhats.
Vegapunk encourages other devil fruit users with healing abilities to help them, calling out Trafalgar Law, Marco and Mansherry.
When the Strawhats heard the news, they called Buggy to confirm the situation. They have been receiving packages from Baratie with no letters included. All of the packages contained regular items that could help them survive in the long run like dry goods and vegetable seeds. However, Sanji could not imagine his old man would do so. Receiving no response from Buggy, Strawhats used the bird as bait for fishing horn sharks.
Buggy, at that moment, didn't entertain calls. After hearing the news, Buggy ordered his trusted admins to check on Pavo's behavior since it was only Pavo who managed all Strawhats' packages. His admins found out the persons Pavo recruited and mostly, they handled pirates with devil fruit users. Buggy's gut tells him that he has been used and soon, the marines will find out their new headquarters and arrest them. Buggy called a temporary disbandment and hurriedly left the headquarters, carrying Berries and Den Den Mushis.
On the other side of the sea, Trafalgar Law smirked at the news and their call for his surrender. He is currently hiding at one of isshi-100 member's home, who got assigned outside of Drum Island. Law is helping the isshi-100 in exchange for lodging and food.
Aside from providing treatment for covid, the Isshi-100 has been doing late night work in developing vaccines. They were able to develop but failed after a few trials. Now, they are back to square one.
Kureha fears that it may take them 2 years with their progress and, if they were successful, the vaccine is not a one-time shot and may be treated like a flu vaccine. She could see the changes in the virus over the time.