Zombies The possibility of a zombie apocalypse or outbreak has been especially popular recently, in both popular culture and more serious fields. This is because while the actual threat posed by zombies in film and television is not real, in many important ways a potential zombie outbreak mimics the kind of pandemics and disasters that public health officials seek to prevent and plan for. In fact, zombies serve as a such a good proxy for other public health threats that the CDC has issued instructions for "zombie preparedness" and numerous scientific studies have looked at the logistics of a zombie outbreak (CDC, 2012). Thus, imagining a possible zombie outbreak allows one to consider many of the same factors present in practically any pandemic, as well as some of the specific cultural and social influences that one must take into account when dealing with a widespread disaster.

A number of possible diseases have been proposed as a potential source for a zombie outbreak, with the most likely candidates being either a virus or bacteria, due the relative speed with which they can infect a host. Both potential causes have their...

However, at the initial stages of response and planning, whether the outbreak is caused by a virus or a bacteria is of relatively little concern, as efforts to combat the spread will be the same in either case (although for the purposes of this study a virus will be presumed).
The key factor making the population especially vulnerable to an outbreak is the interconnectedness of the global transport system coupled with the lag time from infection to symptom, which could allow infected individuals to spread the virus a vast distance before their conversion into a zombie was complete. A recent study on influential spreading of contagions via air transportation found that contagions spread globally via a few influential points of focus such as JFK, LAX, and Honolulu Airport. This is because the first two service flights from all over the world,…