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How long would it take for a zombie plague to spread across a city ?

By T.K. Randall
October 29, 2023 · Comment icon 14 comments
Zombies attempting to break through a barbed wire fence.
What would you do in the event of a zombie outbreak ? Image Credit: Pixabay / Izzyserious
A new study has determined the amount of time it would take for a zombie apocalypse to overwhelm a single city.
Zombies have become such a staple of horror movies, games and TV shows over the last two decades or so that, at one point, you couldn't move for them - whether it was The Walking Dead, Shaun of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead, zombies were just about everywhere.

But what if a zombie virus outbreak was to actually happen in real life ?

In a new study, researchers at Aalto University in Finland set out to determine how long it would take for a zombie virus to spread across the country's capital city Helsinki.

Their simulation differed from previous efforts because it included a simulation of individual people and zombies as they moved around both within the city and outside of it.

The results were terrifying to say the least - even a single outbreak within Helsinki would result in the entire city being overrun by zombies within the space of just 7 hours.
Beyond that, it wouldn't take long for them to spread across the rest of the country.

"I shouldn't have found it surprising, but I was surprised at how quickly we have to react to keep our population alive," said study lead author Professor Pauliina Ilmonen.

"It made me think about moral issues like the rights of individuals versus the rights of a population."

While calculating the spread of a zombie outbreak might seem like a superfluous exercise, the simulation also has real-world benefits because it can help determine the spread of real viruses.

"The zombie plague simulation offers a way to explore the effects of different interventions and consider them in the context of diseases with different features, such as how quickly they spread or how severe they are," the researchers wrote.

"Because it simulates individuals' actions, it can also be used to test how disinformation would affect the spread of an epidemic (eg, by having some 'zombie deniers' ignore warnings.)"

Source: Mail Online | Comments (14)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #5 Posted by Jon the frog 1 year ago
 
Comment icon #6 Posted by Nicolette 1 year ago
While I understand the sentiment, the thing is that a zombie virus is a much more likely event. Like pathogens with this capability are already in existence.  The high potential paired with the likeliness for ignorant, unethical or careless researches to accidentaly kick off such an event is clearly taken seriously by the government as it would require fast action. As silly as it sounds, it is very important that we are prepared enough to handle these types of situations.  Personally i feel that while it was good practice, the hype behind covid did alot to negate the seriousness this would b... [More]
Comment icon #7 Posted by pellinore 1 year ago
No one knows how they would react if there was such an epidemic:  
Comment icon #8 Posted by XenoFish 1 year ago
1) Question the validity of these zombies. If legit. 2) Hide.  3) Come out of hiding when I absolutely must. Probably won't last a week though.
Comment icon #9 Posted by pellinore 1 year ago
I'd join the zombies. Less stressful and since we have to die anyway at least it would be a bit of fun.
Comment icon #10 Posted by Occupational Hubris 1 year ago
all my dreams...
Comment icon #11 Posted by Shadowsfall 1 year ago
How do they predict the incubation period surely that’s a very important detail…..
Comment icon #12 Posted by qxcontinuum 1 year ago
The population under attack will fight zombies with a newly developed vaccine which will cure them of the disease and restore the Eutopian state of the city. 
Comment icon #13 Posted by MysteryMike 1 year ago
Yeah after what was the fiasco that's COVID and the stupidiness it unleashed. I'm fairly convinced we'd fall during a zombie apocalypse. How people did COVID parties. I'm sure there'd be dumbasses who'd do zombie parties.
Comment icon #14 Posted by SiliRat 1 year ago
I'd ride a fire ant to the chocolate pizza parlour. Wouldn't you?   


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