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Showing posts with label CDC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CDC. Show all posts

Friday, June 1, 2012

Zombie Apocalypse Update

June 1st, 2012

There isn't one. At least that's the official word from the Center for Disease Control in an e-mail to the Huffington Post.
"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)." -- CDC spokesperson David Daigle.
Frankly, in light of recent events, I'd feel better if there was.

We cracked wise about it HERE and pushed back against some high-horse criticism HERE.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Well, The Zombie Apocalypse Is Finally Upon Us

May 27th, 2012

Image via
Get those boards and nails ready to barricade the doors and windows, grab as much powdered food as you can and load up on the ammo because it appears the zombie apocalypse has begun.

You read that right.

To the surprise of no one, it started in Florida...

The Miami Herald reports:
"According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away. Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.
The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots." EMPHASIS OURS
We always knew it would happen this way. In every one of the films we apparently should have taken much more seriously there is just such a report in the background. Sometimes it's carried along the crackle of a radio. Other times it's a "breaking story" seen partially while someone is flipping through TV channels. And no one pays attention.

I am pleased to say that most of the folks I know and many in the commenting public aren't making that mistake. It's clear that the end is nigh and precautions must be taken so we hopefully don't have to double-tap grandma.

Also, there are serious tools at our disposal. A little over a year ago, the CDC published a piece (we flagged it HERE) titled "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse." No, I am not making this up.



We can only hope that the victim is being properly monitored at this time. That's usually how these things get out of control.

In any event, if we keep our heads, science tells us that we stand a pretty good chance. Wired reported a few years ago on a study out of the University of Ottawa department of mathematics which gave reasonable odds for civilization's survival provided that we "hit hard and hit often." However...
"If the timescale of the outbreak increases, then the result is the doomsday scenario: an outbreak of zombies will result in the collapse of civilization, with every human infected, or dead. This is because human births and deaths will provide the undead with a limitless supply of new bodies to infect, resurrect and convert."
The biggest enemy may be official denial. MSN reports:
"Police haven't released any details about the people involved, but they speculate the alleged face-eater might have been suffering from "cocaine psychosis."
Uh huh.

As a musician who's toured extensively, I've seen plenty of "cocaine psychosis" and it never involved eating people's faces or being nearly impervious to firearms.

At least not that I recall.

That's why I am urging all of you to plan for the worst. Review the important educational materials extensively.

And, if you are bitten? Please tell your fellow survivors. They'll know what to do.

Friday, May 20, 2011

The Fine Art Of Getting People's Attention

May 20th, 2011

At the beginning of this week, Ali S. Khan wrote a piece for the Center for Disease Control's blog on emergency and disaster preparedness. Ho-hum you say? Not in the least. This is great stuff. The fact that this did not fly under everyone's radar is due to a touch of creative mischief which is close to inspired.

From the CDC:

"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said 
z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency."

I admit it. As soon as I saw the words "zombie apocalypse" they had me. Read the full post HERE