Epidemiology students conducted exercises in the event of a zombie attack at the University of Michigan in the USA. The simulation was designed to prepare for even the most unpredictable threats and disasters.
The apocalyptic vision of a zombie attack sounds a bit funny, but if we prepare for any potential threat, even the most unimaginable catastrophe, we will be prepared for virtually anything that may happen to us, argued Dr. Eden Wells, from the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan, on Tuesday.
Wells wasn’t sure if she could convince the students to engage in the simulation as if the threat were real, and to properly disguise themselves as living dead. However, immediately after the start of Tuesday’s simulation, it turned out that her fears were unfounded. 120 students disguised as zombies took part in the exercises, with their faces painted in artificial blood and their arms stretched out in front of them, aimlessly moving between healthy participants in the invasion of the university campus.
Epidemiologists should be ready for situations that we are not able to imagine, which is why we take the entire simulation very seriously. We approached the problem with a great distance, but it does not change the fact that unpredictable threats and epidemiological disasters are a very important matter – said the second-year student who participated in the exercises.
Wells believes the action helps students understand better that being prepared for an unpredictable threat is not that simple. We can’t just tell people to be prepared. We have to practice all the time. Sometimes it is worth realizing the importance of a problem through play – she added.
At the end of the exercises, the participants of the simulation danced to the song Thriller by Michael Jackson. (PAP)
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