Scientists give the cold hard facts about Zombies

[ericire12]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/6049924/Zombies-would-most-likely-wipe-out-humanity-if-they-really-existed-claim-scientists.html

Zombies would most likely wipe out humanity if they really existed, claim scientists

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 4:11PM BST 18 Aug 2009

Using models developed to calculate the effects of more plausible pandemics, the team from the University of Ottawa have discovered that unless man struck back quickly and aggressively then they would be doomed.

The scientific paper, which is published in a book “Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress”, looks at an attack by the undead creatures, who infect the living with a bite.

In their study, titled When Zombies Attack!, the researchers picked “classic” slow-moving zombies such as those in Dawn of the Dead as models and divided humanity into three: the living, zombies and the “removed” – zombies who had been killed by decapitation.

They concluded there was no point trying to cure those infected or live with them - the best thing was to destroy them as quickly as possible.

“A zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly,” they write in the book

“While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often.

“As seen in the movies, it is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble.”

Joe Imad, the study's co-author, said: “If you look at it in a more realistic way, zombies are about the same as any other major infectious disease, they get out and we try to eliminate them.

“Modelling zombies would be the same as modelling swine flu, with some differences for sure, but it is much more interesting to read.”

[fightingquaker13]

If I were forced to attend an epidemiology conference, that is one panel I would not miss.
FQ13 

[tombogan03884]

 Have you read or seen "The Serpent and the Rainbow"  ?

[Texas_Bryan]

I've always felt that a zombie 'disease' wouldn't be that effective at wiping out humanity.  Wouldn't something of this nature burn itself out so rapidly that it wouldn't be able to spread?  Zombies, being mindless and all, wouldn't be able to survive that long, nor would they be able to travel to the corners of the Earth to spread their condition to the isolated groups of humans.  But big cities, I imagine, would be in for a Hell of a time.

[Jackel]

i think it would be fun to have a zombie epidemic, just as long as i dont have it and i have sufficient quantities of 5.56

[Sponsor]

[fightingquaker13]

I've always felt that a zombie 'disease' wouldn't be that effective at wiping out humanity.  Wouldn't something of this nature burn itself out so rapidly that it wouldn't be able to spread?  Zombies, being mindless and all, wouldn't be able to survive that long, nor would they be able to travel to the corners of the Earth to spread their condition to the isolated groups of humans.  But big cities, I imagine, would be in for a Hell of a time.

it all depends on how many vectors there were, how long the contagin lies dormant before manifesting, whether they can track and hunt and how long they can go without meals. Its these kinds of questions that make a lot of academic studies that critics like to mock worth while. Once you have built the model, fill in any bio-agent and it still works. Zombies  today, ebola tommorow.
FQ13 who would prefer zombies to ebola, if only for the sake of humor and being able to say I warned you,  before dying an ugly death

[tombogan03884]

 The Tom Clancy novel "Rain Bow Six" goes into a lot of detail about Ebola, that's some seriously nasty sh!t.
Conventional chemical weapons are humane by comparison.

[twyacht]

Shaun of the Dead.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqg0VCZem8w

If you guys up north ever get snowed in, get this movie, the Brits have a whole new perspective on Zombie humor.

Plus Haz gets grumpy with Zombie movies,.....

[Pathfinder]

The Tom Clancy novel "Rain Bow Six" goes into a lot of detail about Ebola, that's some seriously nasty sh!t.
Conventional chemical weapons are humane by comparison.

Ebola is bad indeed. Only saving grace is that it makes the patient so sick so fast, then kills it so quickly that it has trouble spreading beyond its cesspool in Africa. That is, until it mutates into a slower disease, and then . . . .

[Steyr M40A1]

http://www.zombietargets.net/