CDC Warns Public to Prepare for 'Zombie Apocalypse'

Im thinking it could be a way to get other people, who wouldnt normally read these type of things, to at least glance at them. Reading it in the light of a joke at least exposes you to the information once, better than nothing when the S finally does HTF

reply to post by Jinglelord


Hey! I'm a Lefty Liberal myself bub! None the less I laughed my ass off at that comment!

Yeah, like the government is really going to tell me how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. They would be the first to go

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Missing chemicals, you say? I'm intrigued. Do tell, do tell.

"People are so tuned into zombies," he said. "People are really dialed in on zombies. The idea is we're reaching an audience or a segment we'd never reach with typical messages." source

As mentioned in the CDC article, they choose Zombies, to get the attention of people. It sure is, it's all over the net now and on searches and in the news.

Because people are so used to hearing of diseases that may or may not affect them close to home, and with movies, literature, etc., of Zombie attacks, people may feel it's the biggest risk to happen.

Good way to promote preparedness apparently. Also, I think it will bring more new members to ATS , to delve deeper into preparing, as the media will only offer a glimpse(or if anything about "zombies" instead of just Hurricanes etc.).

After reading this i can't help but think of a movie called "Dead Air", in the movie the US Government creates a virus that can turn people crazy where they attack people at sight but in the movie terrorists steals the virus and then unleash it in a major us city. But my point is i don't know about brain eating zombies but people can get crazy.

reply to post by Mactire

know plenty of derelict complexes that don't meet safety standards that'd work well for this scenario. Even if the sprinklers do work, I always thought it might be.... interesting to drain the water and replace with some sort of flammable fluid.

Ah now your thinking, plus if you can get a hold of lots of TNT or other things that go boom, then oh the things you can do to the zombies both in making traps and just lighting the TNT from the roof of one of the buildings and throwing it at them, it would be raining zombie parts.

And now that I think a little more on it a silencer on your gun would be the way to go, sure the zombies in the movies are real stupid and slow. But if it were to happen in real life with like people said some sort of virus effecting people, then I am afraid the whole running around gunning them down thing wont work. First they most likely still have there motor functions on high alert even if they would be single minded they could still see, hear and run you down eventually.

So if you were to shoot one on the street then it's likely the rest near by would follow the sound and then eventually they would overwhelm you, and unless you have a silencer on your gun then it would be shoot whatever zombie saw you and get the hell out of that location fast. And at close range with a sword like Gazrok said you would have to worry about being infected if you go cutting heads off and blood flying everywhere, but I think it if you get zombie's blood on you unless it gets into a wound and into your blood stream it wouldn't effect you, plus if you were wearing a full body suit it would help but then the suit would be useless and would have to be disposed of after you get away.

But either way why take the chance, so the best bet is to go incognito and ninja style in the shadows and avoid any conflict unless necessary till you have all the things you would need to find a spot somewhere preferably far away from the zombies that you could defend by yourself or better yet with a party of people. Basically make a base get supplies both weapons and food&watter to base, set up perimeters on base, set people to watch in all directions at all times in shifts, and if you have sniper guns get to the high ground and snipe any that you see near your base. I know its less fun then running around all Rambo like shooting and cutting zombies to pieces, but definitely more safe and a greater change at survival.

reply to post by burdman30ott6

This: Zombie Ants scares the heck out of me when I really ponder the ramifications. Granted, the human brain is significantly more complex than the brain of an ant, but nonetheless you have a parasitic fungus which has adapted to not just infect ants, but connect to their brains and control the full range of their behavior & actions, directing them to do exactly what the fungus requires for its life cycle & continuation of the species.

Cordyceps unilateralis, nasty little fungus and apparently it likes to appear when the ants and other bugs population gets to big, it's one of natures little ways of keeping them in check. There is a thread somewhere about this fungus and other little mind parasites that take over its hosts mind and body, but I cant remember what it was called now, so heres some cool vids with some some of the pesky parasitic critters out there.


Parasitic mind controlled ants by a type of flat worm.Liver Fluke


Body snatchers, Parasitic Glomerata wasp larvae in a invaded Caterpillar.


And off-course the zombie snail, invaded by a type of parasitic worm.

reply to post by galadofwarthethird


I would never ever barricade myself in. I just couldn't do it. I also wouldn't keep a group larger than could easily be mobilized, making full perimeter watches day and night a difficult task. My personal rules for survival...

~Sleep often. Out of sight. Out of range.
~Keep quite. Never pull a trigger that can be heard by more than a 2nd or 3rd "zombie".
~Keep fed. Eat small, but often to keep energy up without feeling full.
~Goggles and face masks. Eyes, noses, and mouths are equivalent to open wounds. Keep them protected.
~Create road blocks where ever you go. Lots and lots of spare time in a zombie world (living or dead), so why not make it tough for them and create labyrinths all over the place. This'll confuse the dead and the living, slowing down anyone you don't want on your ass.
~Scavenge what you can, when you can.
~Burn the dead.

There are more, but these are the basics.

reply to post by Mactire

I would never ever barricade myself in. I just couldn't do it. I also wouldn't keep a group larger than could easily be mobilized, making full perimeter watches day and night a difficult task. My personal rules for survival

Eventually you would need a base no matter what, if not then you what else is there. The alternative would be to always be on the run and always on the look out and eventually you will slip up one day and that will be that. Look at humanity back when we were just tribes and had to worry about wolves and bears and tigers and other tribes. It's not so much barricading yourself into anything but having a place were you wouldn't have to worry about it all for a little.

Sleep often. Out of sight. Out of range.
~Keep quite. Never pull a trigger that can be heard by more than a 2nd or 3rd "zombie".
~Keep fed. Eat small, but often to keep energy up without feeling full.
~Goggles and face masks. Eyes, noses, and mouths are equivalent to open wounds.
Keep them protected. ~Create road blocks where ever you go. Lots and lots of spare time in a zombie world (living or dead), so why not make it tough for them and create labyrinths all over the place. This'll confuse the dead and the living, slowing down anyone you don't want on your ass. ~Scavenge what you can, when you can. ~Burn the dead.

All good rules but the question is how long can you keep up at it, remember the zombies really don't need sleep and just keep on coming. So therefore they have an advantage over you with that. I think those are good rules till you find a place to base up and eventually eliminate all zombies around, the alternative to that is to always be on the run, and if you act like the prey eventually you will be prey.

Still tongue in cheek but my decision is that, should it come to pass, before we're inundated by a zombie mob - that is before they have an opportunity to dine on brains tartare - haul my butt to wal mart for all the canned goods, bottled water, weapons & ammo as well as camping gear the kids & I can haul out. A guy that I've been seeing has his own personal arsenal (he's also a bit of a survivalist)....that conversation will be one of YO DUDE, GRAB YOUR GUNS, AMMO & WHATEVER ELSE YOU CAN TOSS INTO THE SHAGGIN WAGON & GET OVER HERE. It would break his heart but he'd have to leave his streetster behind...then again that thing could make for a quick get away for 2 but it would mean leaving 2 - 4 others behind & that wouldn't happen. There's no "me or the kids" scenario in my book. They wouldn't survive without mom around. I already hear some scoffing but having been married to a Marine for 15 years I know a bit about survival - that's the ONE thing I can thank him for (aside from the boys) & "Dude" was in the Navy. As long as we don't forget the 32 rules all should be good until the world is safe again LOL Oh, toilet paper, can't forget the toilet paper while looting wal mart!

reply to post by galadofwarthethird


The problem with a barricade is something I discussed with someone else in the thread earlier. Eventually ammo runs out, so picking off approaching zombies with rooftop snipers is going to become an unachievable defense, so barricading yourself in will become a permanent situation. Once they begin to swarm in (and if you do have firearms, this will be quicker as they'll be drawn in by the sound of gunshots), it'll become hard to stop the flow, and the further use of gunfire will only exacerbate this truth. Supressors can help against the noise, but you'll need one for all of your weapons, or make sure your weapons are compatible with the one you have to keep this tactic effective. Eventually food runs out. Once you're barricaded in and ammo is gone, this surrounding horde becomes a prison wall. In the end just a handful of zombies pushing against a door day in and day out for months will weaken henges, and your defenses will crumble.
Basing this theory on a literal walking dead scenario, keeping on the move is always the safest bet. Sleep twice a day (when the sun is at its highest making visibility good for the dead), and during the midnight hours when the night is darkest (and visibility is poor for you). No fires at night for cooking, because as I've said before, the dead are attracted to light. The dead have poor eyesight, but are attracted to light, motion, and sound. I can keep on the move, that's no problem. Most of this effort will be fueled by the constant drive to resupply, and as leading a "normal life" will be impossible during a zombie apocalypse, there'll be no need to play house in any one place. Even if I did set up a semi-perma base, you wouldn't need to defend it 24/7. If you could keep a low profile, you could leave its safety for supplies, and if you were careful (making sure you weren't seen by the dead... or the living), you could keep coming back indefinitely. That's until you've denuded the area of useful resources. I don't know. Each survival method is best suited for each survival per situation. Just stating how I'd do it. That being said;

Mods.... maybe ATS needs its own Zombie Survival Forum.

reply to post by Mactire


In keeping on the move don't forget a good, comfortable shoe/boot, plenty of socks (must keep the feet dry & healthy otherwise you're dinner!)

Does everybody have me on ignore? I have REAL zombie questions here, lol. Nobody has utilized their zombie expertise to fill me in...

1. If they are unable to reason, why are they all so set on attacking the living and/or non-infected? If they are filled with nothing but rage, why wouldn't you just lay low and let them all kill each other.

2. Do they take time out of being filled with rage and eating living/non-infected people to get a glass of water? Like I said before, zombies milling around outside all day looking for the living would be sucked of all moisture in one day here in Phoenix in the dead of summer, so anybody looking to survive, just come here and enjoy zombie jerky with us.

3. I've seen many comments about gunfire drawing in more zombies...how would they be reasonable enough to know, out of all the sounds that float around on this planet, that a gunshot equals living/non-infected people? Again, that suggests a higher level of reasoning, doesn't it?

reply to post by claireaudient


Have you ever watched that show 'Dual Survivor' on Discovery? The guy on there Cody and I both have an affinity for barefeet. While good shoes are a welcome tool, I can manage without.

reply to post by 27jd


I think I did comment on this once. In fact I know I did, though it may have been someone else's question and not yours. Anywho; I think the answer can be found in rabies. I've heard farmers claim that rabid animals won't attack other rabid animals. I can't confirm this and found nothing online to prove or debunk this claim, but this would explain their disinterest in one another. Maybe they feel no need to attack their own. Their brains have been affected by a virus, and a virus' sole purpose is to spread. Why spread to something you already occupy? There are some really interesting vids on youtube showing insects that have become enslaved by parasites. These parasites make these bugs do strange things like feed themselves to birds, eat their own kind, etc.
On to question 2: They may not seek out a glass of water. (If they're dead, they won't need it, obviously), but if we're talking about viral, bacterial, or parasitical zombies then they would require water to live. However 2-4 days without water would be plenty to wonder around, attack everything that lives (no pun intended), and then drop dead after you've spread to 5-10 other people, who then spread out and do the same thing. 75 million people died during the Black Death in the 1300s, now imagine everyone infected going out and willingly trying to spread this virus through rioting and murder. Wouldn't matter if the virus killed them before dehydration did, it would still be hell on Earth.
Question 3: Zombies, living or dead, would be attracted to all manners of sounds manmade or not. But once the $h!t hits the fan, most sounds will likely be manmade once the power goes out. Nature is pretty quiet, especially compared to the sounds of scavenging humans, barricades being built, guns being fired, and engines on generators. If you watch Night of the Living, especially Tom Savini's remake, you'll notice that the zombies are attracted to the hammering and the house lights. If they'd of turned off the lights and stayed quiet, they likely would've been fine til morning, without even needing to board up the windows. Their doom was fueled by their fear of the dead, and their paranoia of one another.
Hope that's answered some or all of your questions.

reply to post by 27jd


I'm no zombie expert - yet here is my attempt to answer your questions by throwing some ideas around. Below are my personal opinions on the topic (similar to what others have posted)..

1: I don't think all variations of zombies would be filled with rage (aggression maybe). If so, it would be an animalistic-like survival trait to dominate the social zombie group (much like an alpha dog) or an aggressive attribute to intimidate targeted prey. Also, like most species of living organisms/animals, a zombie would probably have enough basic instincts to preserve and continue to spread it's infection, disease, virus or parasite and therefore only be interested in attacking/infecting non-infected food sources (whether animal or human). So, I do not think they would have the natural drive to attack or feed off another equally infected zombie.

2: Like any living creature, zombies would require water to survive (living or dead) until eventually the human body ceases to function. Without water the human body would eventually become dehydrated and break down no matter what type of organism was using it as a living or dead host. So I think a very hot/dry area as well as very cold area would be the safest area to live - if there were zombies. (VERY GOOD POINT). Severe heat or cold would hinder a human zombie quite a lot. No matter how determined the host - the human body can only handle so much before it collapses (unless somehow it's supercharged).

3. Zombies would have to rely on their limited senses since they have lost most reasoning skills and logical thought processes. So basically they would only be able to rely on sight, smell, sound, and touch as their primary means to locate food (and water). Any auditory sound would mean a potential food source - whether human or animal. So it's not exactly the sound of a gunshot - it's more of just hearing a sound in general and moving toward it as quick as possible in an attempt to find a new food source or potential prey.

Of course my comments here are speculative - I really don't know much about zombies. The behavioral attributes of a "zombie" would really be determined by the type of infectious disease, virus, bacteria or parasite carried in the human host. This infectious organism could very well have some limited form of reasoning or survival instinct based on access to the human brain and genetic code - yet I seriously doubt a "zombie" would come close to the higher-level thought processing of humans, such as self-awareness, rationality, and sapience.

reply to post by Mactire


Mactire: You made some good points. A zombies main purpose may solely be to spread to new hosts and not to feed or survive beyond what a human body is capable of living. Like you said - if a zombie can infect more hosts during the time the human body is alive and functional, then it will be serving it's purpose of reproducing/replicating itself to other new living victims on a large global scale. It would be a huge epidemic.

CDC advises on what to do with the Zombie apocalypse?

Wow , either theres going to be an explosion of inbreds from CONgress or CDC must either be bored or thinking its still April 1st?

Originally posted by Mactire
Maybe they feel no need to attack their own. Their brains have been affected by a virus, and a virus' sole purpose is to spread. Why spread to something you already occupy? There are some really interesting vids on youtube showing insects that have become enslaved by parasites. These parasites make these bugs do strange things like feed themselves to birds, eat their own kind, etc.

Well, that to me would still imply a sense of reasoning, unless the virus has the ability to reason which isn't likely for a virus. I've never heard of such a thing about rabies. Insects don't have reasoning, they are running purely on nature's programming as far as I know, so the parasite just interferes with that program, no? It seems those behaviors would be an unwanted side effect as far as the parasite is concerned. The whole idea behind being a parasite is for your host to live as long as it can, otherwise it's just shooting itself in the foot, so to speak.

On to question 2: They may not seek out a glass of water. (If they're dead, they won't need it, obviously), but if we're talking about viral, bacterial, or parasitical zombies then they would require water to live. However 2-4 days without water would be plenty to wonder around, attack everything that lives (no pun intended), and then drop dead after you've spread to 5-10 other people, who then spread out and do the same thing. 75 million people died during the Black Death in the 1300s, now imagine everyone infected going out and willingly trying to spread this virus through rioting and murder. Wouldn't matter if the virus killed them before dehydration did, it would still be hell on Earth.

In that case, you would probably do much better to just get far away from population centers, and let things play themselves out for about a month or so. If you have a nice trail rig, get up into the mountains and you'd be fine. If the zombies have lost all reasoning skills, they're not going to go off on a trek into the mountains looking for survivors, since they would have no concept of that. They would just run around taking paths of least resistance, they wouldn't be able to climb the face of a cliff, etc.

Question 3: Zombies, living or dead, would be attracted to all manners of sounds manmade or not. But once the $h!t hits the fan, most sounds will likely be manmade once the power goes out. Nature is pretty quiet, especially compared to the sounds of scavenging humans, barricades being built, guns being fired, and engines on generators. If you watch Night of the Living, especially Tom Savini's remake, you'll notice that the zombies are attracted to the hammering and the house lights. If they'd of turned off the lights and stayed quiet, they likely would've been fine til morning, without even needing to board up the windows. Their doom was fueled by their fear of the dead, and their paranoia of one another.

Again, the mountains would be the place to go. Human beings only advantage, is our intelligence. Take that away, and we're pretty much soft shelled skin bags with no real physical attributes. Zombies wouldn't have super hearing or vision, so you could make all the noise you want out in the wilderness.

Thanks for answering.