Are You Ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

By Maya J. Carter

Yes, you read the title correctly. The zombie apocalypse is a possibility…sort of. If you take a gander at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at cdc.gov, you may be surprised at what you see. A clever and hilarious tongue-in-cheek campaign for emergency preparedness focuses on a theme right out of the “Walking Dead” universe through the presentation of their “Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic” checklist. The website includes links to a zombie themed graphic novel as well as posters and additional literature, all in an effort to make the masses aware of what is needed to survive hypothetical emergency situations. There is even a blog and a toolkit for educators.

Now, I like the occasional zombie themed television show or movie like “28 Days”, but to take the concept from the horror media genre is both genius and potentially hazardous.

Genius because the theme is quite hilarious and utilizes an interesting subject to discuss the serious issue of disaster preparedness – including disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or other emergencies that could lead to mass morbidity and mortality. Of course the CDC does not believe in the existence of zombies, or the “rage virus”, but the concepts presented in the campaign are necessary to catch the eye of the general public and focus attention on ways to prepare for any emergency affecting large regions of the country. The CDC presents a checklist of the items needed to prepare in case of emergency, such as water, food, medications, tools – not included would be tools like baseball bats covered with barbed wire – and supplies, sanitation and hygiene, clothing and bedding, important documents, and first aid supplies. The scenario also presents how to develop an emergency plan such as identifying emergency contacts and meeting up with family and friends (emphasizing meeting with them, not worrying about potential brain-eating zombie attacks…this must be stressed), and planning evacuation routes. The CDC goes even further with discussing isolation and quarantine in the case of emergencies like pandemics, as the globe is unfortunately currently well-versed in during these times. There is even a chance to join the CDC Zombie Task Force, which I am seriously considering!

Now, with that stated, this is why such themes could be potentially hazardous. I doubt that people such as anti-maskers or anti-vaxxers are going to the CDC website to learn valuable, life-saving information, which is unfortunate. If so, their intent may be to merely discredit the well-researched information presented by the CDC to further their efforts at disseminating disinformation…the key here being disinformation. Even further, with conspiracy groups running roughshod during our current times, I can only imagine what they might do by taking the theme for this campaign LITERALLY. Sarcasm, irony or tongue-in-cheek themes are lost on some people. Listen…we are living in a time where some people believe that the current President of the United States is not the actual president, and the former president is really “still” the current president and will be reinstalled based upon the illogical belief that no presidents since 1871 are actually “legitimate”. Which is odd in and of itself because this implies that the former president could not have been a legitimate president as well, thus could not be “re-elected”… because by their belief, he should have never been considered a president in the first place! I will not completely disagree with the latter though because I believe that the orange monstrosity should have never been a president in the first place, yet for vastly different reasons. But I digress.

Imagine people who purport to be “red-pilled” and “think for themselves” (despite readily believing in illogical and dangerous conspiracy theories) getting a hold of the hypothetical upcoming zombie apocalypse discussed by our foremost federal epidemiological institution. I envision these people stocking up on weapons, preparing to wreak havoc and commit violence (maybe in line with a level of violence demonstrated in “The Purge” franchise), and believe in something so improbable like lying “lizard people” blending into zombie hordes to do harm to them or their families. By extension, and granted this is an extra long stretch, could this set us up for yet another harmful incident like, oh say…a second insurrection? Some groups of people have proven their extraordinary ability to believe in some insane and far-fetched ideology, even when the very ideology is easily disproven. What if they begin to integrate a possible zombie apocalypse into their already highly dubious conspiracy theories, and begin to lash out against people they consider to be actual zombies (which I suppose would be distinct classification from “lizard people”)? Hopefully this is an unlikely scenario, but this day and age, everything is on the table and must be considered.

Of course, this is all in jest, but…what if? With some people believing in anything and everything from an alternate universe, anything is possible. For now, I will just continue to prepare myself for any potential apocalypse as recommended by the CDC, as should we all…zombies or not.

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