Is the Zombie Apocalypse Nigh? - June 24th UPDATE

 

CDC Zombie Preparedness Website 

This year just keeps getting stranger and stranger. After months of odd weather (See: 2012 Disaster Monage), and even odder weather in May including record breaking tropical storms, we are now faced with the unimaginable. A series of separate events has taken place over the last couple of weeks that has people speculating whether the zombie apocalypse is nigh.

It wasn't until May 26th, a mere four days ago, that the list of strange events started grabbing peoples attention. It became something that could not be ignored, something mysterious that had to be figured out. Many people are still on a quest for answers in understanding some of the strangest, most horrific events they have seen hit the news in a while.

On May 26th, 2012 in Miami Florida, a 31 year old man by the name of Rudy Eugene walked across MacArthur Causeway. He began stripping his clothes off, and what came next is something straight out of a horror movie. Rudy Eugene found a homeless man, 65 year old Ronald Poppo on the causeway, and began beating him. Eugene then stripped the lower half of Poppo's clothes off and proceeded to kick, punch, pull and tug at Poppo. And then the unthinkable happened, Eugene began ripping and eating Poppo's face. And eating his nose. And gouging out his eyes out.  A witness in the case, Larry Vega, told Fox 7 news that Eugene refused to stop eating Poppo when police arrived at the scene, instead growling at them with a piece of Poppo's skin hanging from his mouth. The police officer yelled at Eugene to stop but after continuing the officers were forced to shoot. But one shot wasn't enough and Eugene continued to eat Poppo, forcing authorities to pump several shots into him in order to stop him. Eugene died at the scene, Poppo was taken to Ryder Trama center. He was last listed as critical care.

That is not all that happened.  In Hackensack NJ, a 43 year old man by the name of Wayne Carter, stabbed himself in the legs and stomach and then threw pieces of his skin and intestines at police- forcing them to retreat and call a SWAT team in to handle the situation. He is also listed as critical condition. "The scene was a bloody mess," a police official told Cliffview Pilot. "The SWAT team members had to be decontaminated due to the amount of blood."

In a new case coming out of Daytona Beach, Florida officers said that suspect Brandon De Leon was arrested for a disturbance in a local eatery. After being arrest De Leon apparently smashed his head against the plexiglass of the police car saying "I'm going to eat you!" He then growled and grunted like an animal proceeding to try to bite an officers hand, he then had to be placed in a bite mask and leg restraints in order to protect the people around him from hard. Local police in Florida have issued a warning to police to be careful when dealing with the homeless or people who appear to be under the influence of any drugs. -Miami police warn of new drug after grisly attack

And it really doesn't stop there, although I really can't help wanting it to. The following is a breakdown of events that took place over the last couple weeks that have authorities and society baffled.

This list will be updated, if necessary. 

1. 3-08-2012 -  Father Bites Off 6-Year-Old Son’s Penis Before Brave Witnesses Can Stop Him
2. 3-24-2012 -  Man attacks, growls Miami police who try to help him
3. 4-03-2012 -  Woman's trip to Phoenix Target ends in bite attack
4. 4-09-2012 -  James Duckett is jailed for bite attack in Golden Lion pub, Selby
5. 4-10-2012 -  Woman attacked in home in bitten multiple times
6. 4-11-2012 -  Baby declared dead wakes up in Argentine morgue
7. 4-13-2012 -  Mao Sugiyama Cooks, Serves Own Genitals At Banquet In Tokyo
8. 4-16-2012 -  Toronto sees first case of rabies in more than 80 years
9. 4-16-2012 -  Brazil 'cannibals turned women into pastries' 5+ People
10. 4-17-2012 -  Man tried to bite another man, was stun gunned
11. 4-21-2012 -  Bail denied for man accused of snatching, biting toddler
12. 4-24-2012 -  Driver takes a bite at another woman's chest
13. 4-25-2012 -  Man recovers from surgery after face-bite attack at party
14. 5-02-2012 -  Man bites girlfriends lips off
15. 5-03-2012 -  Man bites off another mans ear in bar fight
16. 5-04-2012 -  USDA Quarantines 2 Farms Amid Mad Cow Investigation; Offspring Euthanized
17. 5-06-2012 -  Man kills wife, eats her forearm and dies
18. 5-11-2012 -  Necrotizing Fasciitis: Georgia Woman Fights Flesh-Eating Bacteria
19. 5-11-2012 -  Man pronounced dead at crash leaves hospital alive
20. 5-11-2012 -  Baby boy declared dead by doctors, found to be alive
21. 5-11-2012 -  $500,000 in stolen pathology equipment may have hazardous materials
22. 5-12-2012 -  'Dead' man wakes up at funeral that becomes celebration
23. 5-16-2012 -  2 Teachers, Students at Hollywood High School Hospitalized After Breaking Out in Rashes - Second floor evacuated, classroom quarantined after rash break out
24. 5-16-2012 -  Fight evolves into bizarre naked screwdriver, biting attack
25. 5-17-2012 -  Second Flesh-Eating Victim Reported
26. 5-18-2012 -  Woman bites mans ear, stabs him with seashell
27. 5-19-2012 -  Unknown Chemical sends 5 from Florida airport to hospital
28. 5-21-2012 -  Police: Man bites woman's cheek in Westchester
29. 5-23-2012 -  Tractor-trailer cargo hazmat leak causes I-285 rush hour shutdown
30. 5-23-2012 -  U.S. Quarantines 6,000 Hogs Fed Tainted Pet Food
31. 5-23-2012 -  Cops: Man bites off tip of cousin's nose
32. 5-23-2012 -  Woman mauled to death: autopsy
33. 5-24-2012 -  Second Broward school reports mystery rash
34. 5-24-2012 -  Third Victim Flesh-Eating Disease Lands Man in Same Hospital as Aimee Copeland
35. 5-25-2012 -  Hazmat Called After Kids Exposed To Pesticide On Bus
36. 5-25-2012 -  Woman attacked, cut, bitten by six women in Annapolis
37. 5-25-2012 -  4th Victim Loses Leg to Flesh-Eating Bacteria
38. 5-25-2012 -  Haitian Declared Dead Wakes Up in Funeral
39. 5-25-2012 -  American Airlines 'disoriented' passenger detained after flight disruption
40. 5-26-2012 -  Naked Man Eating Victim’s Face Shot And Killed By Police
41. 5-27-2012 -  Crazed Florida doctor facing charges for spitting blood on troopers during DUI arrest
42. 5-27-2012 -  Russian "cannibal" admits to eating hearts & livers of 6+ people
43. 5-27-2012 -  Contractor bites 2 Lowe's employees, resists arrest
44. 5-28-2012 -  University of Illinois has hazardous materials accident at the Institute of Genomic Biology
45. 5-28-2012 -  Woman caught performing sex act on highway tries to bite cops
46. 5-28-2012 -  Mysterious death of naked man with bites supposedly "dog" related - doesn't add up
47. 5-29-2012 -  Palm Coast man accused of strangling kitten, biting lips off another
48. 5-29-2012 -  Police: Hackensack man stabbed himself and threw intestines at officers
49. 5-30-2012 -  Swedish doctor cuts wife's lips off and ate them
50. 5-30-2012 -  Chinese cannibal arrested for 20+ murders
51. 5-30-2012 -  Two Cases of Flesh-Eating Bacteria Treated in Los Angeles at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital & Medical Center
52. 5-31-2012 -  Manhunt in Canada for man who dismembered/cannibalized/committed sex acts on another man
53. 5-31-2012 -  Maryland man charged with killing, eating man's brain, heart 
54. 5-31-2012 -  Boy attacks, bites school bus driver multiple times
55. 5-31-2012 -  Two officers suffer bite wounds and bruises while subduing man at Ipswich hospital
56. 6-01-2012 -  Staten Island Pizza Shop Owner Bites Mans Ear
57. 6-01-2012 -  Man punches woman's face in road rage attack, she bites him several times
58. 6-01-2012 -  2 Salisbury women arrested after stabbing during fight, tried to bite officers
59. 6-02-2012 -  Nigeria: How Female Student Was Killed/Eaten By a Cannibal
60. 6-02-2012 -  Jason Levert Johns Attacks/Bites On Wife In Rockingham County
61. 6-02-2012 -  FIFTH victim has emergency surgery as flesh-eating bacteria strikes again
62. 6-03-2012 -  Hazmat Spill in Scarborough Sends 3 to Hospital
63. 6-03-2012 -  Man bites Lawrence Walmart employee
64. 6-04-2012 -  Woman charged after punching, biting police officers
65. 6-04-2012 -  Miami Man behind bars allegedly growls, tries to bite officer
66. 6-04-2012 -  2 Workers Taken To Hospital In Hazmat Incident At Naval Research Lab
67. 6-04-2012 -  Cryptosporidium source sought in Britain
68. 6-05-2012 -  Firefighters, HazMat team called to Salmon Creek 7-Eleven
69. 6-05-2012 -  Homicide victim: Homeless man died from ruptured spleen 
70. 6-05-2012 -  Woman arrested for allegedly scratching, biting cops
71. 6-05-2012 -  Carl Jacquneaux allegedly bites face of victim in Louisiana assault
72. 6-06-2012 -  Cops: 'Crazed' woman stole wig, bit shop owner, spit flesh at him 
73. 6-06-2012 -  'Dead' Brazilian boy 'sits up in coffin at his own funeral and asks for WATER before lying back down lifeless'
74. 6-07-2012 -  Man attacks co-worker with knife, bites his ear
75. 6-07-2012 -  Huron implement dealer evacuated after suspicious package
76. 6-09-2012 -  HAZMAT Team Called into Medical Waste Recycling Plant
77. 6-11-2012 -  Confirmed: Crook Co. Man Has the Plague
78. 6-13-2012 -  Plague Rare in U.S., Surfacing in More Affluent Areas
79. 6-13-2012 -  Sacramento pastor dies from 'flesh-eating bacteria' complications 
80. 6-14-2012 -  Woman accused of shoplifting bites Wal-Mart employee trying to block her escape
81. 6-14-2012 -  Neha Afreen, Reshma Banu's Infant, Murdered & Bitten By Father Because 'It Is A Girl'
82. 6-14-2012 -  N.Y. mom on possible bath-salt bender dies after Tasing
83. 6-14-2012 -  Hazmat situation sickens one and shuts down ER
84. 6-14-2012 -   Naked man allegedly abducts 9-year-old from bedroom
85. 6-15-2012 -  Woman beats deadly flesh eating bacteria
86. 6-15-2012 -  Man Battling Flesh-Eating Bacteria Could Go Home Soon
87. 6-17-2012 -  Man 'shouting incoherently,' dies of unknown causes in Texas 
88. 6-18-2012 -  Commerce Township teen bites dad 
89. 6-19-2012 -  Sickness in NJ courthouse remains mystery
90. 6-19-2012 -  Details emerge in rabid skunk attack
91. 6-19-2012 -  Man bites dog: WPD K9 recovers after attack
92. 6-19-2012 -  Naples man bites nurse, threatens to 'eat faces,' cops say
93. 6-20-2012 -  White Plains supermarket encounter, with teeth
94. 6-21-2012 -  Man under the influence gets naked, bites off chunk of man's arm 
95. 6-21-2012 -  Monkey bite victim: 'They jumped me, they just jumped me'
96. 6-22-2012 -  University of East Anglia student suspended after biting bouncer
97. 6-22-2012 -  Move over zombies: Man left bloodied and screaming in pain after attack by 'bunch of leprechauns'
98. 6-23-2012 -  Anthony Giancola, Former Principal, Charged In Stabbing Rampage

 My Google 'Zombie-Like' & Strange Events March-June 2012 Mapped List

So is this the beginning of the zombie apocalypse? No one can say for sure to be honest- and there are already instances of "zombie-like" disease plaguing areas of the world today. Whether it's the krokodil drug epidemic that Russia has been battling for well over a year. A nasty drug that if injected wrong rots the skin (making it look like crocodile skin) and eventually exposing bone- making it's victims look like walking skeletons. (Google krokodil for videos on what it does to the body)

Or the mysterious nodding disease affecting many Ugandan children-
a disease that greatly affects the brain turning it's victims into nodding, aggressive zombie like people.

Ironically, an article posted in National Geographic in 2010 quoted Samita Andreansky- a virologist working at the University of Miami in Florida. Coincidental or not? She is quoted as saying:

"Sure, I could imagine a scenario where you mix rabies with a flu virus to get airborne transmission, a measles virus to get personality changes, the encephalitis virus to cook your brain with fever"—and thus increase aggression even further—"and throw in the ebola virus to cause you to bleed from your guts. Combine all these things, and you'll [get] something like a zombie virus." - "Zombie Virus" Possible via Rabies-Flu Hybrid - NATGEO

Also in 2010 George Dvorsky posted on the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies a very interesting article that visits not only pop culture zombification techniques but also real life examples of present day zombies- like the malaria virus and it's affect on the mosquitoes it infects or the chemicals making grasshoppers commit suicide. That article can be viewed here: How to Engineer a Zombie Virus

Regardless of what the outcome of these situations are I feel that it is imperative that we as a society stop basing what zombies actually are by examples on television and movies. The "double-tap" and "awakened after death" are simply movie plots- and not reality.

Earlier in April Forbes stated this about Vladimir Putin's Zombie Gun: "The more insidious design–just one among the list proposed by Seryukov–is a weapon that could theoretically render someone pliable or even drive them insane by directly attacking the brain.  This is the weapon most appropriately described as a “zombie gun” for obvious reasons.  If the weapon can short-circuit the executive function capacity of the brain, then it’s plausible that the target would become silly putty, or possibly revert to a primal state and eat someone else’s brain (too early to tell)." - Are We Ready for the Russian Zombie Gun?

After all, zombies do exist.

It's just a matter of how you define them.

*CalTech researchers reportedly created a 'zombie-like' virus that was effective in mice, and 'perhaps' humans in the summer of 2011. The article for that can be found here: CalTech

According to an article posted on BusinessInsider.com the doctor spitting blood at police and the mystery rash that has been plaguing Florida are related, they posted this today: "Elsewhere, Gawker reports that health officials and hazmat teams have been unable to identify the source of a "mysterious rash" that has broken out across parts of Florida. In one incident, 41-year-old Zachary Bird went on a rampage after being pulled over. He spit blood into a trooper's eyes and banged his head on the cop's car several times. His demeanor was described as "extremely agitated and enraged."  The plot thickens.


And don't forget that half of the population of Earth in infected with toxoplamosa gondii a parasite found commonly in rats and cats. As Technovelgy says: "Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma. Parasites in the body - and the brain. Remember that. Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite found in the gut of cats; it sheds eggs that are picked up by rats and other animals that are eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts in the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts, including the brain. Since cats don't want to eat dead, decaying prey, Toxoplasma takes the evolutionarily sound course of being a "good" parasite, leaving the rats perfectly healthy. Or are they? Oxford scientists discovered that the minds of the infected rats have been subtly altered. In a series of experiments, they demonstrated that healthy rats will prudently avoid areas that have been doused with cat urine. In fact, when scientists test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of cat urine to induce neurochemical panic. However, it turns out that Toxoplasma-ridden rats show no such reaction. In fact, some of the infected rats actually seek out the cat urine-marked areas again and again. The parasite alters the mind (and thus the behavior) of the rat for its own benefit. If the parasite can alter rat behavior, does it have any effect on humans? Dr. E. Fuller Torrey (Associate Director for Laboratory Research at the Stanley Medical Research Institute) noticed links between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia in human beings, approximately three billion of whom are infected with T. gondii:

• Toxoplasma infection is associated with damage to astrocytes, glial cells which surround and support neurons. Schizophrenia is also associated with damage to astrocytes.
• Pregnant women with high levels of antibodies to Toxoplasma are more likely to give birth to children who will develop schizophrenia.
• Human cells raised in petri dishes, and infected with Toxoplasma, will respond to drugs like haloperidol; the growth of the parasite stops. Haloperidol is an antipsychotic, used to treat schizophrenia."

The CDC sent an email to the Huffington Post today stating: "CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," wrote agency spokesman David Daigle. I find the word chose a bit odd- for instance why not "knows it does not exist" instead of "does not know"? Especially after they openly admitted that they were baffled by the nodding disease in Africa/Uganda. Nodding disease baffles experts , CDC Nodding Syndrome . Of course this is purely speculation as they deny knowing anything about a disease.

xoxo disaster girl

Purely for amusement purposes only:
Zombie Interactive Survival Map