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[10ebbor10]

Not when they evade it. Living in the brain is one way to do this. Forming vacuoles inside host cells is another. Multiplying and changing like crazy to confuse the hell out of the immune system is yet more. Plenty of ways these buggers have adapted to exploit living things.

Thing is, when you get meningitis from a parasite, it's the immune system not doing a very good job of getting at it.

The main way they survive in the body is forming cysts, or turning into cyst-like structures that the immune system either ignores, or cannot enter.

Diseases in general are bastards.

Also, if it was a prion that caused the disease, you'd be well and truly fucked once infected. Prions cannot be removed, else things like mad cow disease would be curable.

Well, I suppose you could try to bioengineer another prion that undoes the first prion. Sadly, this is technically not possible.

[misko27]

Not when they evade it. Living in the brain is one way to do this. Forming vacuoles inside host cells is another. Multiplying and changing like crazy to confuse the hell out of the immune system is yet more. Plenty of ways these buggers have adapted to exploit living things.

Thing is, when you get meningitis from a parasite, it's the immune system not doing a very good job of getting at it.

The main way they survive in the body is forming cysts, or turning into cyst-like structures that the immune system either ignores, or cannot enter.

Diseases in general are bastards.

Also, if it was a prion that caused the disease, you'd be well and truly fucked once infected. Prions cannot be removed, else things like mad cow disease would be curable.

Well, I suppose you could try to bioengineer another prion that undoes the first prion. Sadly, this is technically not possible.

What if engineered a prion that destroyed the place where the first prion was? And can this work for cancer? So can I create a deadly plague that cures everyone of Cancer? And maybe one that does a few "things" to someone's brain? So if I, say, said I created a plague that cured cancer, and instead used it to over the world with my brainwashed army, that would work? Can I also make them immortal? And speak in french accents? And all purple-haired? And grow dog-ears? What aboutresistance to fire, and always being on fire? HUH?!? Do we have the technology!?!
 
*accepts Nobel Prize*

[10ebbor10]

Not when they evade it. Living in the brain is one way to do this. Forming vacuoles inside host cells is another. Multiplying and changing like crazy to confuse the hell out of the immune system is yet more. Plenty of ways these buggers have adapted to exploit living things.

Thing is, when you get meningitis from a parasite, it's the immune system not doing a very good job of getting at it.

The main way they survive in the body is forming cysts, or turning into cyst-like structures that the immune system either ignores, or cannot enter.

Diseases in general are bastards.

Also, if it was a prion that caused the disease, you'd be well and truly fucked once infected. Prions cannot be removed, else things like mad cow disease would be curable.

Well, I suppose you could try to bioengineer another prion that undoes the first prion. Sadly, this is technically not possible.

What if engineered a prion that destroyed the place where the first prion was? And can this work for cancer? So can I create a deadly plague that cures everyone of Cancer? And maybe one that does a few "things" to someone's brain? So if I, say, said I created a plague that cured cancer, and instead used it to over the world with my brainwashed army, that would work? Can I also make them immortal? And speak in french accents? And all purple-haired? And grow dog-ears? What aboutresistance to fire, and always being on fire? HUH?!? Do we have the technology!?!
 
*accepts Nobel Prize*

Do you know what a Prion is?

Spoiler: Answer if you don't (click to show/hide)

It's a sequence of aminoacids folded into a specific 3D shape (which happens by use of another prion of the same type, or another). Basically, it's a sort of protein.

They float around in cytoplasma and are actually quite easily destroyed. (Heating to 40 degrees C should kill most of them).

[misko27]

Not when they evade it. Living in the brain is one way to do this. Forming vacuoles inside host cells is another. Multiplying and changing like crazy to confuse the hell out of the immune system is yet more. Plenty of ways these buggers have adapted to exploit living things.

Thing is, when you get meningitis from a parasite, it's the immune system not doing a very good job of getting at it.

The main way they survive in the body is forming cysts, or turning into cyst-like structures that the immune system either ignores, or cannot enter.

Diseases in general are bastards.

Also, if it was a prion that caused the disease, you'd be well and truly fucked once infected. Prions cannot be removed, else things like mad cow disease would be curable.

Well, I suppose you could try to bioengineer another prion that undoes the first prion. Sadly, this is technically not possible.

What if engineered a prion that destroyed the place where the first prion was? And can this work for cancer? So can I create a deadly plague that cures everyone of Cancer? And maybe one that does a few "things" to someone's brain? So if I, say, said I created a plague that cured cancer, and instead used it to over the world with my brainwashed army, that would work? Can I also make them immortal? And speak in french accents? And all purple-haired? And grow dog-ears? What aboutresistance to fire, and always being on fire? HUH?!? Do we have the technology!?!
 
*accepts Nobel Prize*

Do you know what a Prion is?

Spoiler: Answer if you don't (click to show/hide)

It's a sequence of aminoacids folded into a specific 3D shape (which happens by use of another prion of the same type, or another). Basically, it's a sort of protein.

They float around in cytoplasma and are actually quite easily destroyed. (Heating to 40 degrees C should kill most of them).

So no fire then. Oh well. Then it'll have to be mexican accents, and they all most have bright white beards, and periodically go "Ho Ho Ho!".

[Flare]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

[10ebbor10]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

Of course. Spores/parasites with a really long incubation time. By the time people notice the first cases, every city on Earth has already been infected.

[misko27]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

Of course. Spores/parasites with a really long incubation time. By the time people notice the first cases, every city on Earth has already been infected.

Or, Perhaps the militar is unaware of a need to shoot the head. Or, perhaps, they are non-trained well enough to defeat them.

[Darvi]

Or, Perhaps the militar is unaware of a need to shoot the head.

I think everybody older than 5 knows that headshot=dead, unless it's something thickheaded like an elephant or something.

[Loud Whispers]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

Of course. Spores/parasites with a really long incubation time. By the time people notice the first cases, every city on Earth has already been infected.

Or, Perhaps the militar is unaware of a need to shoot the head. Or, perhaps, they are non-trained well enough to defeat them.

Like as not, for the military even this wouldn't be a need. If for some magical reason it has to be a head shot, well, it's the military. I'm sure obliterating the infected as well as tearing their vertebrae in two would be more than enough. Big guns carry big rewards. Ho ho ho.

[Gunner-Chan]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

Actually, even with competence an actual just like the movies Zombie Apoclypse would at least surpise or catch unaware initial attempts to stop it I would think. I mean almost everyone knows how movie zombies work and shit, but seeing it start to happen in real life is unreal enough to be dangerous on it's own. In fact the cultural awareness of movie zombies might even cause problems.

How is this patrol sent to investigate something in the dark in the middle of an urban center going to tell the difference between 20 bored college kids doing a zombie walk too drunk to respond or 20 actual zombies shambling towards them? It seems stupid and silly but do remember, at one point there was an accident where a Russian garrison mistook some radioactive powder for talcum powder since they appeared very similar and in similar containers. It sounds stupid but when something is routine it dulls the senses.

But afterwards, actually containing a zombie outbreak shouldn't be a huge undertaking after it's realized what they are and that it's ACTUALLY happening. Unless it's a Romero style the dead come back to life no matter what thing. Then everyone's screwed anyway.

[misko27]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

Of course. Spores/parasites with a really long incubation time. By the time people notice the first cases, every city on Earth has already been infected.

Or, Perhaps the militar is unaware of a need to shoot the head. Or, perhaps, they are non-trained well enough to defeat them.

Like as not, for the military even this wouldn't be a need. If for some magical reason it has to be a head shot, well, it's the military. I'm sure obliterating the infected as well as tearing their vertebrae in two would be more than enough. Big guns carry big rewards. Ho ho ho.

And where do this guns come from? As it turns out, even police aren't very accurate.

 ...the nation’s largest police force, with 36,000 officers

The number of bullets fired by officers dropped to 540 in 2006 from 1,292 in 1996 — the first year that the city’s housing, transit and regular patrol forces were merged — with a few years of even lower numbers in between. Police officers opened fire 60 times at people in 2006, down from 147 in 1996.

The average number of bullets fired by each officer involved in a shooting remained about the same over those 11 years even with a switch to guns that hold more bullets — as did officers’ accuracy, roughly 34 percent. This figure is known in police parlance as the “hit ratio.”

While officers hit their targets about a third of the time over all, far fewer bullets generally found their mark during gunfights. In 1999, only 13 percent of bullets fired during a gunfight were hits.

Here's the article in question. and heres a image I am to tired to link.

Anyway, accuracy amongst untrained civilians should, accordingly, suffer. Killing actual things is alot harder then doing it to targets. that's why only the military is really capable of doing anything.

Here's a fun simulater, on National Geographic for some inscrutable reason.

Fact is, once say, a entire city is gone, it'd be very hard indeed to fix. Even then that doesn't include infected but alive people who left before hand. and once a few cities are down, they get into the country side. There's always Saturation Nuclear Bombing, but most people don't like that idea.

[Wrex]

You don't even need to nuke it. A firestorm caused by incendary munitions would do well enough.

[10ebbor10]

You don't even need to nuke it. A firestorm caused by incendary munitions would do well enough.

Or in the case of technically living zombies,  bioweapon bombardement.

Setting up a quarantine shouldn't be too hard, and it's unlikely the zombies can maintain themselves.

[Flare]

Is there a way the zombie virus can spread around enough without every single armed force on earth being totally incompetent?

Actually, even with competence an actual just like the movies Zombie Apoclypse would at least surpise or catch unaware initial attempts to stop it I would think. I mean almost everyone knows how movie zombies work and shit, but seeing it start to happen in real life is unreal enough to be dangerous on it's own. In fact the cultural awareness of movie zombies might even cause problems.

How is this patrol sent to investigate something in the dark in the middle of an urban center going to tell the difference between 20 bored college kids doing a zombie walk too drunk to respond or 20 actual zombies shambling towards them? It seems stupid and silly but do remember, at one point there was an accident where a Russian garrison mistook some radioactive powder for talcum powder since they appeared very similar and in similar containers. It sounds stupid but when something is routine it dulls the senses.

But afterwards, actually containing a zombie outbreak shouldn't be a huge undertaking after it's realized what they are and that it's ACTUALLY happening. Unless it's a Romero style the dead come back to life no matter what thing. Then everyone's screwed anyway.

I actually think it would be quite quick to be identified for what it is, and if not in a definition similar to our conception of zombism, there are diseases like that out there already. A highly contagious form of human rabies would work just fine. With the current ability to communicate things the moment they happen, I'm usually highly suspicious of how these sorts of things go on undetected for prolong amounts of time. New diseases often set off alarm bells of the highest order. It seems to me that the only way that this disease can spread unnoticed is as if there's several months delay between when the symptoms start and that assuming check up won't find anything funny about these people, and a failure of every single communications system we have, not to mention a failure of almost every other emergency system.

It's not even as if zombies provide much in terms of offensive value either. They're more or less very angry, small bears and twice as stupid. The level of firepower a modern military can bring forth is simply staggering. The advances in air-power, artillery, and other mechanical system is almost never depicted all that accurately in these types of movies.

[misko27]

You don't even need to nuke it. A firestorm caused by incendary munitions would do well enough.

Or in the case of technically living zombies,  bioweapon bombardement.

Setting up a quarantine shouldn't be too hard, and it's unlikely the zombies can maintain themselves.

Oh Yeah? Look at the second result.