what if we told you the dystopian future created by the fungal pandemic from The Last of Us is not
just a science fiction horror story but under the right conditions could potentially wipe
Humanity off the face of the Earth in fact did you know that even as we make this video there
is a deadly fungal infection outbreak sparking fears of a U.S endemic sweeping through the
southwestern United States were the creators of the game now HBO streaming series on to
something the world should be concerned about the answer Mayhem your nightmares
when coming out of a worldwide pandemic That Shook Humanity to its core it's natural to be
looking around wondering what the animal kingdom will come at us with next so when a popular video
adaptation turns streaming series uses a real-life previously little-known infection to start the
next great pandemic oh by the way it turns us all into zombies then you can't blame anyone asking
wait could this really happen and the answer is yes in fact it already is happening [Music]
imagine you are going about your business and harmless spores floating through the air land
on your arms legs and body hardly noticing them you go about your day working eating and sleeping
what you don't know is that these spores have slipped fungus cells inside you those cells
begin to feed on you within your body and begin multiplying into new cells before you realize
something is happening the fungus has grown inside of you until it makes up nearly half
of the mass of your body the cells spread through your body the long tendrils called
Mycelia this network of fungal threads produces toxins that begin to affect your ability to work
eat and function day by day as the fungus Works its way into your muscles it also
sends a strange chemical signal to your brain which causes you to do something strange you
suddenly feel the urge to climb without knowing why you desperately search for the highest point
you can reach driven to climb to the tallest structure you can find and once there without
understanding why you latch onto something for term and become paralyzed unable to move
as you slowly die the fungus begins to digest you from the inside out creating sticky threads that
glue your corpse to the elevated structure out of your head bursts a giant stalk which
showers spores onto more unsuspecting victims below this sounds like something right out of
science fiction story right well it's not in fact it's been happening for 48 million years
in 2010 Dr David Hughes an expert on ophio cordyceps at Pennsylvania State University and
his colleagues identified a 48 million year old fossil of a zombie ant with a death grip on a leaf
wait what did you think the story we were telling was about a human nope it's ants but don't worry
you aren't out of the woods yet we'll get back to that in a moment though Hughes an expert on
the fungus thought where the hell did that come from well it turns out carpenter ants
but after Hughes started going on Expeditions he started turning over more leaves and finding more
zombified ants in fact what he originally thought had been one species of fungus turns out to be at
least 35. each one zombifying A different species of ants or attacking other insects and the belief
is that there could be as many as 600 species still waiting to be discovered so where did this
fungus come from and what does it mean for humans before we break down what this means for Humanity
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change your life today not bacteria not viruses so fungus it all started millions of years ago Hughes
hypothesized that in the beginning the fungi got accidentally picked up by ants living in logs
alongside them in their new ant hosts the fungus already had the ability to feed on muscles grow
stocks and spread but ants presented the fungus with a major challenge ants lived in crowded
nests and because a disease can wipe out an entire Colony the ants ruthlessly attack any individuals
that show signs of sickness as a result the fungus could not spread natural selection
favored the fungi that could get the ant out of the nest alive so it eventually became necessary
to zombify the ant to make it do a few things it wouldn't ordinarily do the odd thing here is
don't ants sound quite a bit like humans living in crowded nests cities keeping the other ants safe
from illness quarantines and lockdowns so knowing this is out in the world should we Panic isn't
there already a deadly fungus outbreak spreading through the United States let's take a look at
some of the facts if you're thinking I've never even heard of a fungal infection outbreak don't
worry you're not alone although you may recognize it as valley fever the good news is if you don't
live in the United States and specifically in the states of Arizona and California then you likely
don't have anything to worry about 97 percent of all valley fever cases are reported in those two
states according to the California Department of Public Health the illness is caused by breathing
in fungus spores that are usually undisturbed in the ground but are uprooted by construction wind
or walking but what you really want to know is when will it start turning people into zombies
right well the answer is it won't this type of fungus called coccidiodies is bad enough because
it tricks doctors into thinking the patient might have cancer but it won't turn you into a zombie
as as many as 500 000 people are infected each year with valley fever and the good news is not
only will it not turn you into a zombie but according to the CDC most people who get sick
from it will get better on their own within weeks to months but it's not all happily ever after yet
because Believe It or Not Our Fate to becoming fungus zombies actually depends on something we
hear about on a daily basis that's right our fate could be in the hands of climate change
how dare you what if for instance the world were to get slightly warmer remember when we
said valley fever is pretty much relegated to California and Arizona well according to
geohealth it turns out that because of climate change valley fever could reach the border with
Canada before the end of the century okay so whoo valley fever is awful but it doesn't sound
like any of those 500 000 people are turning into zombies well that is absolutely correct
the fungus currently capable of turning ants into zombies cannot be contracted by humans
the reality is that our body temperatures are too high for them to survive inside us
it would literally take a global temperatures to rise before the fungus could learn to adapt to
warmer climates before it could reach an optimal body temperature closer to our body temperature
yeah but hey there's no proof in that right oh there is in 2009 an infectious fungus called
Candida Oris adapted to warmer temperatures and now can be found in more than 30 countries well
that doesn't sound great and to make matters worse fungal diseases are harder to treat than bacterial
infections because fungi like humans are made of eukaryotic cells that make it difficult to
find a treatment that targets the fungus and not the humans so as you continue watching The
Last of Us whenever you see a fungus sprouted zombie try not to think of climate change and
other potential culprits like the deforestation of the rainforests where there is a very good
possibility to encounter potential fungus that could jump into the human population
but before we have you huddled in a corner of your room with the doors shut and the windows
locked binging Netflix for the rest of your life let us provide you with a bit of Silver
Lining according to James Scott a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in
biological hazards and micro fungi the fortunate thing is there are literally millions of different
kinds of fungi on the planet and there really are only a handful that cause serious diseases
to people also something to note is that unlike the monsters in the last of us the fungus that
turns ants into zombies aren't currently running around eating other ants and French kissing them
by forcing tendrils into their open mouths poor tests in the end no matter how good it is The
Last of Us is still just a show created in the minds of riders and the danger to those of us in
the real world is still just a puzzle wrapped in a hypothesis and packaged in the question what if
so what do you think does watching The Last of Us make you wonder if we are looking at our future or
have we been reading too many horror stories be honest after watching the first couple episodes
you took a hard look at your flower and pancake mix right what would you do if you suddenly
found yourself living in a dystopian nightmare let's talk about it in the comments below and
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we lose
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