Hi
of
This episode might just save your life
when the undead come for it.
♪ [upbeat, xylophone]
Just putting it out there...
I love scary movies.
A family moves into their dream home
only to find out that it's haunted
by vengeful spirits.
I'm here for it.
A crazy machete wielding serial killer is on the loose.
It's the jump scares for me.
Social media had all the spooky vibes this week
after some people found this page
on the
For those of you who don't know,
the
Think of it as America's version of
It's a government organization that focuses
on
So, naturally, the conspiracy theories started rolling in
all over social media.
People wondering why a government website
has something about a zombie apocalypse.
Do they know something we don't?
Is there a zombie apocalypse coming?
So, the short answer is no.
The long answer is that CDC put out this page
in 2011 to spread awareness about preparing
for emergencies.
Emergencies like natural disasters and global pandemics,
but they cleverly used a zombie apocalypse as their theme.
This page is 10 years old, but it was recently updated
to go along with predictions of a 16th century French
astrologer named Nostradamus.
He predicted that 2021 would have some major events,
including a zombie apocalypse.
Let's go!
We just had a crazy year.
Can you blame people for thinking that
a zombie apocalypse might just happen?
In 2020 we saw a virus spread across countries
all over the world.
I don't know if you've heard of it,
kind of niche and underground,
ah, it's called, ah, COVID-19.
Who knows? Could we see a zombie virus do the same?
Ay-yo,
[soft growling]
I decided to talk to someone who may know more on this topic.
Dr. Amanda Veri is a microbiologist whose studies
have led her to become a zombie expert.
So, I'm going to start off with, like, a fun question.
What's your favourite zombie movie or TV show?
Oh, my gosh, there's so many good ones.
I love
and I like the idea of it being a comedy
and not, like, too scary.
Warm Bodies
I love
that's a romance.
We were talking about zombie apocalypses.
So, is there any way that this could actually ever happen
and if so, what would be the cause of zombies?
Well, we think that nothing is really impossible with science.
We don't know what can happen, but it's highly unlikely that
you would ever find the case of a zombie in real life.
Now, if it were to happen, it would be caused
by a different kind of microbe.
So that would be either a virus or a bacteria or a fungi.
These are things that cause infections in us right now.
That's really what causes zombies,
are these different kinds of microbes that
we see in real life.
So it's highly unlikely,
but I guess you never really know.
Like you said, a lot of the time
in passing a virus--
a lot of people are tying connections between
zombie movies and a virus spreading between a huge
population and COVID-19.
Have we seen anything like COVID-19 in the past?
How it's affecting the whole world like this?
Absolutely. The COVID-19 pandemic
is definitely not our first pandemic.
The world has experienced many similar types of things before.
The one notable example is the 1918 Spanish flu,
and that infected around a third of the population
around the world and had really devastating effects.
We've seen other types of microbes,
like the bubonic plague that spread to large populations,
maybe they didn't spread to the whole world,
but they still were able to spread far and wide
and really infect a lot of people.
I think everyone knows zombies have like,
a few key characteristics, like walking slowly,
wanting to eat brains and like decomposing,
like, flesh and bodies.
Are there any other types of viruses or diseases that
have similar effects to zombie characteristics?
Amanda:
interesting thing about zombies,
is there are different kinds of infections that
we see in real life that kind of mimic this.
So in terms of things like decomposing skin,
we see diseases like leprosy or flesh eating disease,
which is necrotizing fasciitis and in that case,
you get these bacteria that instead of staying
on the surface of your skin, they get really deep
into the tissues, they release these toxins
and it starts causing your skin to decompose.
The walking slowly... um, there's diseases like
mad cow disease, which infects, obviously, cows,
but in the case of mad cow, they get infection
in their brain and these infections then cause
a death in the brain cells so they no longer can function
properly and these infections spread to their spinal cord.
So then when your brain is trying to send the message
to the cow's legs and arms to move,
they're not really able to send that message properly
because those cells that are responsible for sending
the message are, are dying or dead.
So that really causes them to change their behaviour
and their movement. So they lose their coordination.
They can't move properly and they might get that
slower moving activity that you would see in zombies.
Now, in terms of fighting and eating brains,
I really don't-- You might think would be,
like, the harder one to find,
but there's a great example of it in nature
and it's rabies. Rabies is a virus, ah,
is caused by a virus that mostly infects animals,
like raccoons, ah, bats, and dogs.
And it really, really controls their behaviour,
which is kind of scary and causes them to be really
angry and really have the desire to fight people,
fight different animals,
and that's all going to continue the infection
and to spread it to other people,
and one of the scariest thing, though, is the virus also
causes the animals to be afraid of water.
So that's weird, but it causes them
to no longer want to drink water or wash themselves.
And you may be thinking like, why the heck would it do that,
but the reason is because the virus is in the saliva,
in the infected animal's mouth,
and so, if the animal is not washing themselves
or not drinking water, then that virus gets to keep
concentrating in the mouth so that there's more
of them there, so then when the rabid animal
comes to bite you, there's a lot that virus
that can go straight into your bloodstream,
and infect you.
So, there are these really cool and crazy cases
in nature of different kinds of microbes
controlling behaviour so that they can spread even more,
and that's kind of really very similar to zombies.
How would you prepare for a zombie outbreak,
like what precautions would you take?
Everybody wants to know what to do to prepare
for a zombie outbreak.
The best thing you can do is think of it like any other
natural disaster or any other kind of pandemic or infection
that you try to protect yourself against.
So all of the tools you've already learned for COVID-19
are going to help you here.
So what you'd want to do is have some supplies at home,
have an emergency kit where you would have extra water
and food, first aid supplies, and anything you need,
like sanitary products and medications,
so that if you have to stay home
because there's zombies all around,
you can lock yourself inside and you don't have to go out
for a long period of time.
You also have to have an escape plan.
So if you hear a rumour that zombies are coming your way,
you can start and get on the road
and leave to go somewhere safe.
It'd be the same thing hear that an earthquake or a hurricane
is coming. It's always good to have a plan
of another place that you can escape to
and how you would get there so that you can be safe
if you know that's coming.
The last thing is with COVID-19,
we learned a lot of different ways
to keep ourselves safe from infections.
So washing your hands lots, not touching our eyes,
nose, and our mouth, and also staying home
if we're sick or keeping our distance from people
that are sick and those all apply here.
You don't want to get the zombie infections,
you want to make sure that you're staying far away from
the other zombies and not letting their viruses
get anywhere near you.
So a zombie apocalypse might not be in the near future,
but I still like the idea of putting together
an emergency kit.
Here's what would be in mine.
So, first things first.
I'm gonna need a backpack. I have my own one right here.
Can you tell what my favourite colour is?
OK, so, gonna start off with the basics.
I would have my water bottle, some snacks, and some mints.
These are-- Beauty guru.
Wanna keep my breath fresh, don't wanna be smelling.
Of course, I would have some chocolate as well
because I have a sweet tooth
and I'm not going without chocolate.
Putting in my glasses so I can see those zombies
coming from far away.
Y'all are not sneaking up on me.
Charger, so my phone doesn't die, obviously,
and my earplugs so I can tune out the noises
of zombies eating brains.
OK, next, I'm gonna need some fun things.
So, um, I don't know if all of them are going to fit
into my backpack. I'll pick out at least one.
So, got a good old Harry Potter book here.
You know what?
I don't want to get bored of just reading,
so, gonna pack some colouring books as well.
Last but not least, probably the most important thing,
I don't know, chocolate is pretty important.
Obviously, gonna need a first aid kit.
I'm not sure if this one will fit in my backpack,
but, ah, I tried.
You know how YouTubers always stop and are like, thumbnail!
[camera clicks]
What would be in your emergency survival kit?
Let me know at
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of
Hey Alexia, What's Trending.
Make sure to keep an eye out for those zombies.
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