Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic
“CDC has a fun new way of teaching the importance of emergency preparedness. Our new graphic novel, “Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic” demonstrates the importance of being prepared in an entertaining way that people of all ages will enjoy. Readers follow Todd, Julie, and their dog Max as a strange new disease begins spreading, turning ordinary people into zombies. Stick around to the end for a surprising twist that will drive home the importance of being prepared for any emergency. Included in the novel is a Preparedness Checklist so that readers can get their family, workplace, or school ready before disaster strikes. ”
View the entire document here. Found via Laughing Squid.
Comments (7)
McLuvin on 26 Oct 2011 at 10:12 am #
It is nice to see the CDC using pop-culture to help people. This will get more people thinking about emergency preparedness. Most of whom would never have checked the site if it wasn’t for a zombie story.
Reaver on 26 Oct 2011 at 11:24 am #
random idea for a topic, but how about one that compares different shooting techniques for a variety of ranged weapons and their comparative benefits for accuracy?
Semper Cogitant on 27 Oct 2011 at 3:05 pm #
Yeah, just stay in your house and everything will be fine. Or go to a government shelter where they will take care of everything.
No mention of the rapes and murders that happened in shelters during Katrina and would happen in any other mass shelters.
No need to consider defense in your emergency preparedness planning. The state will take care of everything for you. Just join the crowd and become a refugee. Never mind the crime, violence and disease rampant in mass shelters or refugee camps.
What this comic is teaching is dangerous. A plan that does not involve being able to defend yourself is no plan at all.
Massive, overcrowded shelters filled with violence and disease are the absolute last place you should go.
Perhaps McLuvin is right that it will get people thinking, but hopefully they don’t think along the lines the CDC is preaching.
McLuvin on 27 Oct 2011 at 6:09 pm #
The CDC is never going to recommend arming yourself. It’s sad, but the government is anti-self defense. They would much rather we let them handle everything. Don’t worry about the fact that they are completely incapable of protecting us from crime or emergencies. That’s not to say that there isn’t some good information on the site. As we all know, preparation does include more than weapons.
Bax on 31 Oct 2011 at 9:44 am #
If zombie flicks taught us ANYTHING, its that public zombie shelters, easy access outposts, ect will fail in a BIG way. See zombie rule #22 on what to do.
Oldefarte on 29 Nov 2011 at 1:05 am #
That’s a fun, little exercise, but, in comics, as in life and business, the rule is “you sell what you’ve got” and, in this case, the government is selling – what else – a “government solution”. Consider, however, the likely scenarios.
A rapidly spreading infection: Do you really want to be sharing space with thousands of others in a school auditorium? How many of your new “roommates” are infected? Carriers? And what happens when these “emergency shelters” become hotbeds of infection and it becomes necessary to lock the doors and quarantine everyone (infected and uninfected) inside?
Currency collapse: Since government will be the cause of the problem, there is nothing the government can do that will not exacerbate the problem. After all, disaster relief costs money and that means that the government is going to have to confiscate money, or borrow money, or print money to pay for the problem which taxes and excessive spending and borrowing and debt monetarization caused. Do you really want to be reliant on the government when the government goes broke?
Natural disaster: Think “Katrina”. ’nuff said. And, of course, the midwest and northeastern floods as well as the southwestern droughts were marked by the singular absence of “government” (esp. Federal) assistance.
Societal collapse: The most likely possibilities are either government inaction (lest some “important constituency” be alienated – look how long it took any government entity to move against the very limited “Occupy” movement, now multiply the problem by thousands involving multiple “voting blocs” all demanding their “due”) or government over-reaction (think “Waco” – based on allegations of possible “child abuse”, the Feds decided to burn the complex and everyone in it, including the children they were ostensibly “protecting”). What is your, personal likelihood of being on the “right side” of any particular government response?
War and/or Invasion: In 1975, I got to personally witness what happens when organized military resistance crumbles. Unless you can hold onto a helicopter’s skids long enough to reach a waiting aircraft carrier, I suggest you make plans for your own preservation, including a second set of clothes in case a fleeing soldier feels the need to “borrow” yours.
Now, I am not the whacked-out, conspiracy-theory wracked, anti-government nutcase that those comments might suggest, however, the reality is that people who depend on others to protect and save them necessarily run the risk that those others will not be quite as concerned with their personal survival as they, themselves, would be. The CDC’s comic is a start, but it’s not an answer and folks who believe that there is any likelihood of “something really bad” happening need to take the next step and consider (and prepare) a useful response. After all, the likelihood of a major meteorite hitting the Earth is less than 1 in 50,000,000, yet the government spends millions watching the skies “just in case”. A couple thousand bucks to guard against lesser potential disasters is probably not excessive.
Z_Creator on 07 Dec 2011 at 10:01 am #
They always say
“Stay home, help will arrive soon”
or
“Proceed to local shelter/evac point and stay calm”
But even movies have showed us that staying at home or going to crowded shelters are bad idea, because they’re the first human posts to fall
Who says that the military/police will protect you always if they see how bad the situation is, they will quit and survive their own