How the Zombie Apocalypse Can Explain the Spread of Diseases

When the zombie apocalypse is upon us and the undead begin their global domination, we will all be left to fight for our lives or run for the hills. But did you know the scenario of a zombie apocalypse can help to explain just how diseases can spread in society?

In modeling a fictional zombie apocalypse, researchers are able to get a more in depth real world look at disease outbreaks worldwide. The techniques used to study a zombie apocalypse prove to be useful when researching real life diseases. Researchers at Cornell University have explained that a worldwide outbreak of a zombie apocalypse are similar to what a large scale outbreak of a virus like Ebola may look like. In the zombie apocalypse, there are four different stages to the virus.

First stage is the human stage, second is the infected, third is the zombie, and last is a dead zombie stage. These stages interact and combine with each other in a similar way to chemical reactions in the body.

In Depth Look into the Zombie Virus

If there was a zombie apocalypse, we usually assume that all areas are affected at the same time, and months after the initial outbreak occurs, there are pockets of survivors here and there. But realistically this isn’t the way that a disease outbreak will actually go down.

Don’t be too shocked that the zombie apocalypse we know of from our favorite movies and television shows isn’t entirely true. Researchers are able to provide you with a more inside look as to how an actual virus outbreak such as the zombie apocalypse would occur. They predict that dense populated cities will be the first to fall to the virus, and typically they’d likely fall quickly due to overcrowding and the spread of disease.

It would take time however for the zombies to penetrate through to more remote rural regions like that of the Rocky Mountains. The best place you would want to be during an outbreak is a place as far away as possible from people. This way you will be more unlikely to be near any places with an outbreak. Of course this model includes the assumption that people wouldn’t be on the move, so if in fact more people flocked to the mountains, well it wouldn’t be a safe option anymore.

Spread of Diseases

Take for example this image from Cornell University. This image shows a heat map, which depicts a 28 day stretch of the zombie outbreak. The lighter areas are those in which will be hit the hardest and fastest when a zombie outbreak does occur. Again this is all speculation from the research team at Cornell. More remote locations will have a huge advantage with less people, on the other hand supplies and resources will be limited.How Disease Spreads

How Disease Spreads

So do you remember that time a dog on your street came down with rabies, then later in the day, every other dog on the block ended up having rabies too? No? That’s because biting is a terrible way of spreading disease. So when looking at a zombie virus, to a traditional virus, biting may not spread the disease as fast as our movies have taught us.

Successful diseases have a clever way of spreading to their victims. The flu has killed over 10 million people because it hits through the air, the plague was spread by fleas, and sexually transmitted diseases work through sharing intimate contact with the infected. I don’t think anyone really will be in the mood to have sex with a zombie, so it looks like we’re safe there.

Traditional diseases have been able to mutate in order to infect more unsuspecting victims in a quick period of time. If biting is the method of infection with a zombie virus, we may just have time to run off to the middle of nowhere before the infection gets to us. And just like traditional diseases and viruses, the zombie virus shows a transition. If the overall total of the disease is below a certain level or point, well it’s more than likely that humans will come out on top, otherwise, look out.

If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that larger cities always fall first, even with a large amount of supplies. Perhaps the best route would be to plan ahead by gathering supplies and stocking up, while locating to a more remote location. And they always said living out in the middle of nowhere had its disadvantages. Seems to me that this is quite the opposite when we are dealing with an army of undead moving on us, wanting to devour our brains for breakfast, lunch and dinner.