How Zombie Fiction Conditioned You For COVID-19

Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days later, Train To Busan, Rec, World War Z, and many other movies have been made about zombies that all contain one similarity: pathogens.  

The CDC and Zombies 

It should not come as a surprise that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2011 issued the comic Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.   

Upon hearing the news of a viral zombie outbreak Julie, the female protagonist, asserts to Todd, the male protagonist: 

“I thought you said stuff like this only happened in the MOVIES! What is going ON, Todd?!” 

The comic continues with the couple losing access to the internet, receiving updates via radio to self-isolate, and evacuating to a safe zone where they are screened and celebrate the arrival of a vaccine. (Source) 

“The CDC is working with local health departments on a vaccine. Until then…bunker down and don’t go outside unless you have to! “ 

Preparing For A Zombie Apocalypse 

In the public 2012 webinar Zombie Preparedness: Effective Practices in Promoting Disaster Preparedness, Maggie Silver of the CDC, a guest speaker, shared when justifying the use of zombies in their materials: 

“If you’re prepared for a zombie apocalypse, you’re prepared for any emergency.” 

Devan Tucking-Strickler, from the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, shared the same when explaining the use of the zombie genre when teaching children in schools:  

“… it’s the same spread you might see with something like a pandemic. So as long as we keep relating it back to reality, everybody has fun, you know, it’s a light-hearted concept of the zombies, but we’re still getting the message across.” 

This kind of messaging has been used towards little children in the girl scouts surrounding Covid-19. 

Maggie Silver continued explaining other partnerships the CDC sought to develop within the zombie community, including FEMA, Run For Your Life, The Walking Dead producers, and Max Brooks, the author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. 

World War Z 

World War Z (WWZ) is a sci-fi novel that describes a collection of oral accounts from individuals from all over the world that testify of their experiences in a universal zombie outbreak and the subsequent world war to liberate the earth. 

A virus that starts in China begins turning the infected into vicious, flesh-eating zombies during an electorate year of the USA. China purposefully misdiagnoses the virus as a form of rabies to control the masses. A placebo vaccine against rabies is quickly produced and released during Christmas to line the pockets of governments, doctors, and private investors.  

Does this summary of World War Z sound familiar at all?

Max Brooks is hailed as a zombie apocalypse survival expert because of this work and his fictitious survival novel The Zombie Survival Guide. When commenting about Covid-19, Brooks advocates for greater governmental control: 

“We as citizens could have been calmed down knowing that the people that we trust to protect us are doing that…Politically, you can argue about the role of big government in everyday society, but this is not every day. This is an emergency.” (Source)

Max Brooks has also personally toured the CDC and has had access to their pandemic response plans: 

“I have toured the CDC, and I’ve seen all their plans.” (Source)

Shock and Awe  

World War Z is “required reading for some military organizations,” states Jonathan Czarnecki, Ret. US. Army Dir of the US National Guard, in the 2015 documentary Project Z by Bullfrog Films. 

It should come as no surprise then that the US Naval War College invited Max Brooks to speak in 2009, where he explained how he was in the Army ROTC during Desert Storm. In The Gulf War, the military used a tactic called Shock and Awe to force citizens of Iraq to surrender through powerful visual and audio representations of military might.  

In World War Z, a former US Army infantryman named Todd Wainio described the first formal military battle against New York State’s zombie hordes. He explained how the purpose of war is not to kill but to create enough fear in the enemy, so they surrender. He lamented that Shock and Awe did not work on zombies, but in fact, zombies shocked and awed them (pg 101-102).  

He continued to describe how the (fictional) Battle of Yonkers was a massive publicity stunt for the media, with reporters outnumbering marines. Soldiers were also wearing face masks for the cameras while reporters and military superiors were not wearing them. The zombie virus in WWZ was known not to be airborne. (pg 93) 

The use of Shock and Awe was prevalent in news coverage within the WWZ universe, as Jesika Hendricks of the Canadian Wilderness Restoration Project described: 

“You couldn’t find a channel with anything but zombie news, either live images, or recorded footage from Yonkers. Looking back, I still can’t believe how unprofessional the news media was. So much spin, so few hard facts. All those digestible sound bites from an army of “experts” all contradicting one another, all trying to seem more” shocking” and “in-depth” than the last one.” (pg 120) 

Has not universal news coverage of Covid-19 cases and alleged deaths been the thrusting force to shock the masses into compliance?  

Left 4 Dead 

Left 4 Dead (L4D) was released in 2008 by Valve Corporation, the creators of Half-Life and the inventors of Steam, the largest video game publishing platform in the world. L4D features an outbreak of a virus called the Green Flu. The game is set in 2009 in Philadelphia and involves a fictional government agency called the CEDA (Civil Emergency And Defense Agency), representing a combination of the real CDC and FEMA. The CEDA was tasked with the responsibility to stop the spread of the Green Flu infection. 

The Green Flu is an ever-mutating viral infection spread through the air, bodily fluids, and contact with surfaces. It turns individuals into mindless zombies who present a threat to anyone not infected.  

The military was finally called in to finish what the CEDA started using any means necessary. Individuals that escape the infected zones and seek refuge in military compounds were met with imprisonment, testing at gunpoint, and execution if discovered to be an asymptomatic carrier.  

With this in mind, think about these similarities in the Left 4 Dead Series with the events surrounding Covid-19.  

It’s Not A Flu 

Like Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Form speaking of cyber-pandemics that threaten limited internet access, there is no internet availability in the world of L4D. People resorted to crude handwritten graffiti in public places to communicate messages, while the CEDA and military used radio communications. 

Written on many of the walls is “It’s not the flu” as a response to the CEDA’s downplaying of the Green Flu as a means to quell public concern and prevent mass panic.  

Likewise, in a similar vein, while the CDC acknowledges the similarities in the flu and Covid-19, it highlights minor differences to exacerbate people’s fears and concerns by implying, “It’s not a flu.” or “unlike the flu” (Source). In reality, Covid-19 has proven to be no more deadly than the seasonal flu and is comparable in many instances. According to the CDC’s writings, the flu averages between 9 and 45 million cases per year, with 12,000 – 61,000 deaths per year since 2010 in the US alone. (Source) Influenza is apparently at an all-time low, leading to the natural conclusion that those who have the flu are diagnosed with Covid-19. 

Wear A Mask Propaganda  

Littered among the debris in the world of L4D are remnants of CEDA posters that encourage users to wear face masks.  

In the comic book “The Sacrifice,” which depicts the events immediately after the first installment of L4D, soldiers are depicted wearing military-grade AVON M50 Gas Masks. These masks filter and purify the air you inhale while covering your eyes and mouth, which can absorb viral infections.  

Likewise, in the real world governments worldwide use propaganda posters to insist that everyone wears paper or cotton face masks. Scientifically speaking, these masks are no more effective than putting a handkerchief over your mouth. The Coronavirus is 1000 times physically smaller than the gaps within a face mask, which leaves the eyes exposed and is hazardous since the virus can travel 30 meters once air born.  

Mask wearing has not been the standard practice to prevent the flu, which is also an air-born virus transmitted through respiratory droplets. There is a logical disconnect in mandating the wearing of face masks for a coronavirus while ignoring them for the influenza virus.  

Fear Of Carriers 

It turns out that the reason why the survivors of the Left 4 Dead series have not turned into Whisky Deltas (Walking Dead) themselves is because they are asymptomatic carriers. That means they are infected with the Green Flu but show no visible signs of infection while still being contagious.  

The military is not concerned about immunity but instead if individuals are asymptomatic. This is expressed when players interrupt a radio transmission of military transports, Rescue 7 and Papa Gator:  

Papa Gator: Bridge, are you immune? 

Coach (player): We are NOT infected. 

Papa Gator: Negative Bridger, are you IMMUNE? Have you encountered the infected? 

Coach (player): “Encountered”? Boy, I am covered in zombie blood and puke and eyeballs and twenty other parts I don’t even recognize. We are immune as S***”. (Source) 

The fear of carriers infecting others is also displayed in the comic The Sacrifice. Zoey, a female protagonist, is held prisoner in a quarantined cell within a military compound. While being forced at gunpoint to spit in a tray for an infection screening, she assaults a soldier and unsettles his mask. In a panic, he retorts: 

“Don’t, ah-huh, don’t breathe on me, don’t bleed on me please… Don’t touch me.” 

Asymptomatic carriers in L4D are collected and executed, so they don’t unintentionally spread the virus.  

Likewise, the fear of healthy people who could carry Covid-19 is being used to push a big-pharma vaccine on the masses. In preparing physicians to sell the product, the CDC admits that immunity and effectiveness are acknowledged deficiencies of the coming vaccine: 

“Be transparent that the vaccine is not a perfect fix. Patients will still need to practice other precautions like wearing a mask, social distancing, handwashing and other hygiene measures until public health officials say otherwise.” (Source) 

Yet, the simple notion of you possibly carrying Covid-19 is still being used to justify international travel restrictions, closure of businesses, and forbidding church services, which will be levied through vaccination. 

Covert Conditioning 

A scene in the comic The Sacrifice includes dialogue between Zoey and her parents. She flunked film school because she had been watching zombie movies instead of studying. She replied by saying that it could be potential research for what the newspapers were reporting.  

If pop-culture (And even established medical journals such as The BJM) has continually bombarded us with a zombie apocalypse and uncontrollable viral infections, are we more likely to accept a similar narrative? Through an emotional fear of zombies and the infected, is it not possible that this fear has been leveraged towards asymptomatic carriers of the Covid-19 virus to violate constitutional laws in several countries?  

Is it a surprise that both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin used media and film as propaganda for their political and quasi-religious worldviews? Why should it be any different today?  

A Battle Of Truth 

It doesn’t matter if you can show that national deaths in a country like Ireland did not increase in 2020, or that aborted children were used in preparing the UK Covid vaccines, or that paper face masks are virtually useless in the fight against Covid.  

Likewise, it doesn’t matter if you can demonstrate that the Bible is historically accurate or that all non-Christian worldviews have self-refuting philosophical foundations.  

Western society has rejected God and, therefore, objective truth. As part of God’s judgment, people look to the government as their saviors, the media as their prophets, and the physicians as their priests.  

A coming vaccine messiah promises to rid the world of the fear of death, which is only remedied in Christ (Hebrews 2:14-15). 

Just as the events surrounding 911 were used to justify the overt spying of the population by the NSA and to increased security measures in global air travel, Covid-19 is being used to change the world as we know it. 

And just as Jeremiah was called a conspiracy theorist when obeying the Word of God in heralding the judgment of Jerusalem, you too will be labelled a conspiracy theorist if you uphold what the Scriptures teach about the end of the age.  

Covid-19 is a social, political, and religious phenomenon. Be not deceived.  

The Walking Damned 

The word “zombie” comes from the West-African Kimbundu word “Nuzúmbe”, meaning the souls of the dead. 

In L4D, a survivor wrote 2 Thessalonians 1:9 on a junkyard wall, which describes God damning those who do not obey the Gospel at His return. Jesus refers to damnation as “the second death” (Revelation 2:11) and as existing in a painful state where “The worm does not die.” (Mark 9:48). God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden so they would not partake of the Tree of Life and live forever in their fallen and decaying state (Genesis 3:22-24). 

Could zombies be a physical representation of the damned, the spiritual “walking dead” among us? 

The Zombie Cure 

A virus or a corrupt government might kill you, but what more could they do to you after this? Fear God, embrace truth, and preach the Gospel while you still draw breath.  

The Gospel is the only zombie cure and the only hope for eternal life. Through it, the spiritually dead are made alive. Be about the Gospel in these last days.