Ok, I’m an anthropologist who teaches a class about zombies, so everyone wants my hot take on the COVID-19 pandemic and the undead, right? 1/22

In contemporary zombie movies where zombism is treated as an infection, it spreads fast, has immediate symptoms, and there are only a few unaffected. Examples: Romero films, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Train to Busan, The Girl With All The Gifts, etc. 2/22

For zombism, the R0 is extremely high (each infected person infects many, many others), the death/unmortality rate is 100% (if infected, you turn into a zombie). 3/22

Generally no population in these films survives infection and becomes immune. In films where such people exist, they are usually exceptionally rare (Ex: 28 Weeks Later, Wyrmwood) or require constant medical intervention (The Returned). Hardly a recipe for herd immunity. 4/22

This scenario would preclude any sort of vaccine. A vaccine implies that exposure to a weakened version of the infection allows the body to build up immunity. But with this kind of zombism, a vaccine would still turn people because there is no “mild” version of the disease. 5/22

Now, in zombie films there is a large element of “suspension of disbelief.” I don’t want to say these films are “wrong” because they are not really meant to tell us truths about epidemiology (generally) but rather about human responses to crisis. 6/22

But there are two large “suspension of disbeliefs” that appear in a lot of contemporary zombie films that are problematic, and I want to unpack them here. 7/22

Here’s the first big “suspension of disbelief” moment for zombie films: in reality a disease like zombism would generally be very easy to contain.

Very. Easy.
8/22

With a zombie epidemic, you would immediately know who was infected. There would be no moral ambiguity about how to handle the situation (except for feel-good zombie movies like Warm Bodies). You can’t help them; they are already dead. 9/22

People who are infected by zombies have immediate symptoms, often turning in a matter of minutes or hours. There is no asymptomatic incubation period. 10/22

Zombies are far less likely to cause a global pandemic than COVID-19, which has a relatively high R0 and a long, asymptomatic incubation period. This means a lot of people can be infected and infecting without being easily identified. (On the plus side they don’t all die.) 11/22

But there is another “suspension of disbelief” issue for zombie films that our current moment reveals. That’s the question of how people respond to pandemics and the chaos of these moments. 12/22

In zombie films and TV, there is an assumption that if institutions such as the police, prison system, federal government, and military fall away, that people would turn into the worst versions of themselves. E.g., the Walking Dead motto: “Kill the Dead, Fear the Living.” 13/22

Survivors turn to sadistic evil, exploitation, and cannibalism all on their own. In some cases this is a stylized, over-the-top sadism (Z Nation, Wyrmwood, Walking Dead). In others, this takes forms more familiar to us (e.g. Girl with all the Gifts, 28 Weeks Later). 14/22

But I want to offer some hope: societies without centralized governments, etc (what in anthropology we sometimes call “acephalous” societies) actually have less conflict than we do. 15/22

Not no conflict; people still fight (sometimes violently). But there are mechanisms for how to resolve these problems (including murder, etc) in ways that actively attempt to curtail violence. Think of early classic studies like Evans-Pritchard on the Nuer. 16/22

One mechanism for conflict resolution is physically moving away from people. It is a mystery to me why in the Walking Dead, for example, people don’t just move away from each other, given that the world is almost totally depopulated and they could go anywhere! 17/22

(Yes, yes, I realize watching a zombie movie about farming with the detritus of our fallen society would be boring for YOU, but I’m an anthropologist of food so I would totally be into that.) 18/22

And what we are actually seeing in the COVID-19 pandemic is not a collapse of society, but its strengthening from the group up. People are creating neighborhood networks. They are reaching out to friends to offer help. They are showing care and concern for each other. 19/22

And our heroes of the moment are those who have been caring for all of us all along: nurses, doctors, teachers, (home) cooks, grocery store workers, farmers… 20/22

That desire to reach out and help people during a crisis is often missing in zombie films, which tend to assume that we will all descend into Aggressively Individualistic Survival Mode unless forced to do otherwise. But that’s not really how people are, most of the time. 21/22

So if you want to watch zombie movies while you are stuck at home, I’m all in favor – just remember that’s not really what’s going on outside. 22/fin

Funny update: One of my colleagues is wondering whether I can find 8 students to take a summer class on zombies. I may just screenshot the start of this thread to turn in with my course proposal.