My Theory about the Ebola crisis is that we have seen too many zombie movies

[n2doc]

Too many people expect diseases to spread like the ones in "28 days later" or "World War Z". The've also been watching too many post-apocalyptic movies and shows like "The Stand"

They think infection diseases spread like this:

[unblock]

1. you mean they don't?

[NYC_SKP]

2. Little known fact. If you eat just a little bit of Zombie flesh, you're immune forever!

The challenge is knowing that you're getting true zombie flesh and not a zombie flesh substitute!

[Marrah_G]

3. hehe

[logosoco]

4. I think you are on to something there.

The reason I can enjoy movies like World War Z and "The Stand" is my favorite book ever because it is a time where I can suspend reason and logic and just go with the story.

My moments of "panic" with this ebola thing is because my son is in Africa. But when I remember he is being watched out for and has access to medical care and that he is smart enough to avoid sick people and body fluids, the worry and panic goes away.

So maybe people are just looking for something scary to keep their minds off of worrying about paying the bills and such.

[randome]

5. You may have something there.

It's also when a society-wide malaise sets in that people start thinking more of Doomsday scenarios. Clear the board. Press Reset.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]

[DetlefK]

6. I've heard an interesting theory about the preferences for vampire- or zombie-movies.

The monsters are a symbol of our fears:
- Vampires are about blood, flesh, seduction, night. Vampire-stories allow to escape from a real world where people are uptight.
- Zombies are the conformist, unthinking masses, wanting to swallow you. Zombie-movies are popular when people are mad at the big, bad government/corporation.



And all those escapist fantasy young-adult novels are just the usual "I'm-special-and-different-and-nobody-understands-me"-stuff.

[SheilaT]

7. Good point.

I seem to be the only person I know who has no use for zombie or vampire books or movies, and so I've seen almost none of them, and while I have a copy of World War Z and have been meaning to read it for years, just haven't gotten around to it.

Oh, and I do want to see the movie "Shawn of the Dead" because that's supposed to be a hoot.

The essential problem is that a lot of people simply cannot distinguish between truth and fiction, and don't get the difference between, say, a good historical novel and a bad one, let alone something like any zombie movie at all in which the underlying premise, the zomibies, is pure fiction. So many movies play fast and loose with small items of fact, and if you don't already know about that thing, you may forever think something relatively trivial is true. For example, over the years in lots of movies some character is getting ready to leave DC from National Airport (this is made clear) and then they cut to a shot of a Boeing 707 taking off somewhere. Ummm, those big four engine jets have NEVER flown in and out of DCA. They've just used some stock footage, probably taken at Los Angeles. Yeah, it's a trivial detail but it is highly annoying to someone who knows better.

Or the way they show that mysterious Masters of Computers can totally erase someone's existence by wiping out every piece of information on that person. Really? I don't think so. But it's shown in a way that looks sufficiently plausible that people don't question it. It's okay to enjoy a TV show or a movie, but people should be sufficiently knowledgeable to know which parts are fiction.

What's that show where those two guys debunk all sorts of things? I know they've taken on certain TV and movie tropes.

[n2doc]

9. Shawn of the dead has it's moments

I found it an odd mix of humor and appalling moments.

What was the movie, I think Independence day, that had air force 1 taking off from National?

[SheilaT]

13. I think they took off from Andrews AFB, more or less across

the Potomac from National, and where the aircraft is kept.

The old Air Force One, the Boeing 707, did on rare occasion land and then take off from National. I don't believe that ever actually happened in my time there, which was 1969-1979. For one thing, whenever Air Force One is airborne, the clear a very large amount of air space around it. So for it to land at DCA, that airport will be closed to other operations for a good deal of time, same for taking off.

While other airports have since vastly passed that one in numbers of daily operations, in my time it was still one of the ten busiest airports in the country.

National is actually so close to the White House, that the debris from its explosion as shown in the movie, would probably shut down the airport. Andrews is far enough away it wouldn't be affected. In any case, I had not recalled National being referred to in the movie, and so since I know about Andrews, I simply assumed that's where they went.

[Savannahmann]

8. My first exposure to Ebola information came from a book

The Hot Zone which was published several years ago.

Since then I've read several other works on tropical and rare diseases. My paranoia as some would categorize it is more informed, especially since I rarely watch zombie movies or shows or bother to read those kinds of books. The last "zombie" movie I did watch was Shawn of the Dead, because I like the actor Simon Pegg and it was a comedy.

That is why I have stood solidly on the side of more restrictions on travel from the areas where ebola is running rampant. For some reason, people insist that if we restrict travel from, we are somehow restricting assistance to the areas. It isn't a revolving door, it need not restrict access one way by restricting access the other.

Also, quarantine is the normal preventative measure used with contagions, real or suspected. The Apollo Astronauts spent days in quarantine to insure they did not bring back some sort of infection from the moon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Quarantine_Facility

Neil Armstrong said that the precaution was probably a wasted effort. The chances of some such infection were very low, the possible results of an infection were catastrophic.

[kestrel91316]

10. Some of us actually know a thing or two about real world epidemiology.

Ebola isn't like the zombie movies. It doesn't have to be to become a game changer for the human race.

All that is necessary is for victims to lie, forget, or omit information during the investigation; for contacts to lie, forget, or omit information or to break isolation; for medical staff to behave negligently and thereby delay diagnosis and proper isolation of victims and identification of contacts; for hospitals to give their staff substandard PPE that doesn't meet WHO standards; etc etc etc.

Everybody has to get things right 100% of the time, or cases will slip through the cracks. As case numbers skyrocket, the opportunities for errors also skyrocket.

Human nature is not our friend in this fight.

[AverageJoe90]

11. Sadly this is probably true for some, I suspect.

Which hasn't proven to be helpful, in the least.

[Rex]

12. But it was on the History Channel(tm)!

http://www.history.com/videos/zombies-and-the-plague

[hifiguy]

14. This post may win DU for today.

Bravo. Too true.

[dickthegrouch]

15. I'm surprised, n2doc

We have seen other diseases in the last 30 years treated way too casually and establish firm footholds in the general population (MRSA and AIDS come to mind).
While the movies show a somewhat unrealistic expansion time frame, I believe they are VERY useful in showing all the human frailties that come to bear in enabling that expansion of sufferers.

FEAR is the biggest enabler, but also the one that we can do most about.
I would say arrogance that we can overcome all in the US is the second biggest enabler, because it prevents people from taking sensible precautions.

[n2doc]

17. I'm not saying ebola isn't dangerous

I'm saying people are panicking like it is some sort of super virulent disease, where being in the same town as an infected person means the whole town will get the disease.

AIDS was a different beast, we were very naive in the 80's. But even there it hasn't infected the world. The transmission vectors are very well understood, even if human nature means people still do stupid, ignorant things to keep it spreading.

Haven't seen MRSA as a significant threat, although it keeps getting discussed.

The only arrogance I have seen is from officials. Unfortunately they are the ones in the best position to implement effective containment and treatment policies.

[msanthrope]

16. You will appreciate this.....

http://m.