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‘EBOLA ZOMBIE’ RUMORS

Last week we reported on US Health Agencies’ intention to grant  an exclusive license to a Minnesota company, to develop a vaccine for Ebola; one that is created by combining both the Ebola and rabies viruses (Read that report HERE).  Of course we couldn’t help but draw comparisons between that and the “rage virus” in the movie 28 Days Later.

So when we started getting wind of the topic of “Ebola zombies” running rampant through the internet, and more specifically, Chinese social media, we had to do some further investigation.  It turns out, of course, that the rumors have been based on irresponsible misinformation and ignorance borne out of fear and hysteria, but hysteria that forced the Chinese government to make a statement about the “living dead.”

Xinhua, China’s official news agency attempted to dispel these rumors with a report that appeared on Aug. 9th. (Note, link is in Chinese.)

From the actual report (translated):

Rumor: Ebola can cause “Living Dead” phenomenon

[Internet rumors have spread about how] the Ebola virus will lead to “zombie disease,” or “living dead” phenomenon: a patient infected with the Ebola virus will be in a coma or fainting condition, because the clinical signs and death are very similar, so [people will] often think the patient has died. However, a few hours or a few days later, the patient [will] suddenly wake up and go into a very aggressive state, biting [everything], including humans and animals.

The report goes on to explain that medical personnel in Nigeria wanted people to know that these rumors are completely false, and that in fact people infected with the virus generally do not lose consciousness, but become very weak, and often die.  They said that because the victims are generally so weak from blood loss, violent attacks are impossible.  Ebola is scary, they continue, because of the high mortality rate of the infected, not because the infected will become zombies. “Such a thing could only happen in movies.”

The report also dispels other rumors, such as the emergence of Ebola in China, and the use of coffee mixed with raw onions to cure the disease.

What can this teach us?

Well, social media, by its very nature, is irresponsible (according to the actual definition of “irresponsible”).  On social media, things can be said without repercussion, and retweeted ad infinitum without a single person taking the time to do any research. This is all especially true when we can hide behind the anonymity of the computer screen. Should a real apocalypse occur (undead or otherwise) it will be the ease at which information is disseminated that might ironically spell our downfall.  After a while, who are we going to believe?

16 comments

  1. Calm down people nothing bad is going to happen because if someone dies of Ebola they are dead because”zombies” are only in movies but they come back from coma’s very violent but the infected people can’t do anything to defend themselves against the violent people that just woke up from a coma because the non violent people are to weak even the people that aren’t infected so all I’m saying is that “zombies” are not real! So people don’t be afraid because zombies are not real?

  2. Look there are many outcomes of this situation one of them is zombies and the other will be like ebola spreading over world drastically and why you guys are fighting on grammer?

  3. If someones dead there dead how do you suppose they just come back to life. Little freaky.. people say zombies ain’t real. Well I beg to differ. People that come back fron the dead is a damn zombie in my opinion. And something terrible is gonna happen. I’m ready for the unexspected. You cant believe everything anymore. How do you know we”re getting the real truth on everything… no one will ever no. Till it happens. Call me crazy. But exspect it to happen. Believe the worse cases cuz it could possibly be the end…

  4. whoa this is getting CRAY CRAY!!!!!!!

  5. It’s weird that all of the original sources of the “Ebola Zombie” scare disappear or get censored within days of being posted. Almost all of the sources for the man on the road coming back to life and the two women coming back have been erased! Even Snopes couldn’t be sure of whether or not the claims are true. Are we being told the truth about what is going on in Africa? What if the situation over there was engineered? How would anyone know?

  6. Wow! And I believe that some weird crap will come along eventually. Look at the guy who ate the homeless guysface in florida, or the new jersey guy
    Who pulled oyt his intestines. Eventually genome research or synthetic drugs will cause a big mess

  7. Wow! Okay, maybe China might have been to fast & drastic in saying what they said about the effects of the Ebola Virus. But how can Nigeria or any other country, including ours possibly believe their might not be effects to combining 2 different viruses, whether the effects are good or bad?!?!? Who’s to say what exactly will happen. Yes true, many “movies” show the negative possibilities of combining things as a vaccine to cure a disease… like 28 days later, or I am Legend. Yes we all know their movies, but if you really think about it, many movies speak some form of truth, if not all, some! So their is a possibility that this vaccine made up of 2 different viruses MIGHT or might not, cause drastic outcomes. Just hearing Rabies & Ebola being combined, sounds like a bad thing waiting to happen, it doesn’t sound good at all. But you all know, the-the government never really tell the public/citizens anything. We are always the last to know, and most of the time when we finally find out what happening, it’s too late… we’re already in the mist of the problem. Which is also portrayed in many movies, even movies other than zombie movies… So we’ll just have to wait & see I guess. But as stated before, No one, not even them, “maybe”.. knows the outcome of what combining viruses to fight this disease can do… We shall see!

    • Yeah– combining viruses is not new, but the fact that we’re talking about Ebola and rabies makes it all just a little freaky.

      • Thanks… I never said that combining viruses is new… I simply stated that who’s to know the outcome of combining Rabies & Ebola. I know that many viruses have been combined. & some have even helped. But what we don’t know is what the outcome will be for the Rabies/Ebola combination… at least not the outcome down the line. It may clear things up in the beginning, but what are the long term effects. Also, for them to act as if there could be no possible negative effects/outcome is ridiculous on their part. “Those were the things I was pointing out”, so excuse me if my rant was a bit confusing…

        • Sorry Takia. Didn’t mean it to come off as not agreeing– I am totally agreeing with you. In fact, if you haven’t already, give the article I mention in this article a read– you can read it here:
          https://zombieresearchsociety.com/archives/25562

          I talk about this exactly, and why it’s so scary.

          Thanks for your comments!

          • LOL… Hey Dave. I’m sorry, I wasn’t saying you weren’t agreeing, it’s totally up to you if you agreed to what I said or not. We are all individuals, and have our own separate minds & thoughts. I thought you were saying that “I” didn’t know they’ve in the past combined viruses to try to make vaccines. A big misunderstanding I see. Sorry about that. Now I got it! 🙂 I will totally check out that article, Thanks! 🙂

          • Hey yeah, I already read that article… it is crazy. & scary what their doing. But they’ll continue to try different things… so we’ll see the outcome, eventually…

          • Yeah– we’ll see. 🙂

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