The zombie apocalypse is here

For those people trying to figure out the best way forward dealing with SARS-CoV-2 virus and how to put the various narratives out there in perspective, maybe describing a pandemic virus by analogy will help. The virus SARS-CoV-2 which causes CoViD-19 acts in many ways like a zombie. Like how quickly the zombies spread and their numbers increase. Use this analogy to see what strategies work or not.

In this case the half of the Covid zombies look just like us for five days after they are bitten, then turn into obvious zombies. However, 40-50% of zombies will look and feel like humans for an even longer period of seven or more days. The tricky part about these 40-50% of zombies is that 2-3 days before we'd recognize them as zombies, they can bite us and turn us into zombies too. The zombies have a hard time recognizing humans, if they are 6 or more feet away and hide behind a mask. No mask and get close to a zombie and they bite you and you become a zombie as well. Zombies are really attracted to large, crowded, human gatherings.

What happens to the zombies? Most go on biting and making more zombies for around two weeks, afterward they can't make any more zombies and most turn back into humans. Over a period of weeks to months some of the zombies die. Some of those that don't die take up to six weeks to get well. Some never get completely well, "Long Covid."

There were a lot of Covid zombies in New York City by the end of July, so we know what happened to them. One of 500 zombies <18 years old died; 1 of 120 zombies 18-44 years old died; 1 of 19 zombies 45-64 years old died; 1 of 6 zombies 65-74 years old died; and 1 of 3 zombies older than 75 died. As more and more zombies are created, it is more likely that older zombies will be created.

As of this writing, in the U.S. more than 7.9 million zombies have been created and 0.22 million zombies have died, yet that is still less than 3% of those who could become zombies in the U.S., unless something is done differently, those numbers would go up 33 times if the zombies eventually find everyone.

Some individuals don't seem to care about becoming a zombie as they heard a story that it is not a big deal, as most zombies their age turn back into humans without a problem. In Flathead County there are more new zombies in the 20-40 age group than the percent of the population they represent. However, as we learn more about Covid zombies, it seems that even the zombies that never completely turn or those without any zombie signs, seem to have damage to organs that aren't obvious at first and becomes an underlying illness later.

Google myocarditis and Covid-19. Maybe they also have forgotten that the zombie they create directly or, indirectly through a chain of other zombies, were once someone's best friend, family member, spouse, parent, grandparent, neighbor, mentor at work or a health care worker and are worth the small effort of wearing a mask, if they can.

Widespread use of a vaccine by humans makes it harder for zombies to find humans to change into zombies. However, 15 years after a very effective vaccine against the measles zombies was used, it still took a concerted new effort by the CDC and Public health to reduce measles deaths. Three years later they managed to reduce the incidence of measles zombies by 80% year per year. Still it took a major outbreak and 18 more years to finally eliminate the measles zombies from the U.S. Herd immunity alone can't eliminate all zombies. Is there a plan to eliminate all the zombies? What will it need to succeed? How long will it take? Do you believe the story that just vaccination alone will allow everything to return to the old normal quickly? Even, if you get vaccinated, how do you know that the zombies can't change you into a zombie? What information do you need to assure yourself that it is true, or if not, what actions do you need to take?

So, the zombie apocalypse is here, what do you do? How do you avoid becoming a zombie? Do you pretend zombies don't exist and go about your normal routine? Do you believe others who say it's safe to go back to normal and we don't need to count zombies or track them down? Do you follow evidence-based practices or random opinions? Do you elect local, state or federal leaders who seem to have no plan for eliminating zombies and only talk about the same old issues and the same solutions to all problems, or simply look for someone to blame? How does that end in the zombie movies? Any of them talking about increasing public health spending and the continuing effort needed to both minimize deaths and support people effected by those measures?

Until a way is shown to get rid of zombies, that long term plan implemented, your life is changed whether you acknowledge it or not, the zombies don't care.

— Bob Bridenbaugh, Ph.D., spent his career in biotechnology process development and consulting. He is retired and lives in Columbia Falls.