Debora MacKenzie, contributor (Image: ‘Zombie Novella ‘, CDC)
You have to hand it to the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) - they do try to keep people healthy. And that
includes urging them to prepare for major nastiness, like a
pandemic or bioterrorism, by stashing enough emergency food,
water and dog biscuits to survive until the CDC cavalry arrives
with the miracle drugs. Sadly, few Americans have their
emergency supplies at the ready, apparently. So the CDC
reasoned, like all good scientifically-trained people, that this
must mean they just don’t understand. How can we make this
message so simple even non-scientists can understand it? I know!
Put out a comic book! With zombies! Perhaps they learned a
lesson from Leicester City Council’s clear lack of preparation
for a zombie attack. Or, maybe the idea dawned in 2009, after
mathematicians in Ottawa, Canada published an epidemiological
model of a zombie attack, "using biological assumptions based on
popular zombie movies". In the model, i