Johannesburg - There is always a mad scientist at the helm of a Zombie outbreak in movies, and as far as Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, who penned in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying, is concerned, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life".
Now, use your mind's hands to hold that thought.
We learned this week that French Scientists revived an infectious 48,500-year-old "Zombie Virus", which the researchers found could pose a “health danger”. I have realised through my childhood and childlike adult life (contrary to the general assumption of the oldness of my soul) that if Steve Rogers, you may know him as Captain American, can fall into the North Atlantic Ocean from an experimental drone plane and spend decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended animation, anything else could. And that not everything that does will be kind to mankind.
Keep your mind’s hands outstretched and take this; I am not saying these scientists are mad based on the ambitious, hubristic nature of their experiments, but since they are of the view that Covid-19-style pandemics may erupt in the future as long-dormant viruses like the Captain America-esque ‘’Zombie Virus’’ are coming from the melting permafrost, there surely is some sort of madness when "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life".
So, for the sake of this column, let’s call them mad scientists; mad being an informal adjective for “very enthusiastic”.
The ‘’Zombie Virus’’ they unearthed and collected in the Siberia regions of Russia was the oldest of 13 new pathogens (organisms that cause disease) that were termed as “Zombie Viruses”. These viruses from the ancient samples remain infectious despite being trapped in the frozen ground for many millennia. Dear reader, these scientists have revived 13 new ways to die.
I don't know about you, but I would feel much safer if these new routes to deathville were left in the hands of God, or Allah, or Brahma or whichever name your people refer to their maker than in the feeble, corruptible hands of ambitious humans who are susceptible to financial motives, especially with the prospect of population control lingering in the air - This is not a theory to conspire and exacerbate the situation, but also this week, Giriraj Singh, Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (Council of five officials) of India, batted for a population control bill that proposes a two-child policy per couple in India while drawing comparisons with neighbouring China.
As of 15 November 2022, the world’s population reached 8 billion people, according to a recent United Nations report, and this is a result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries, among a few other reasons.
If you still have your mind's hands outstretched, I will leave you with this; if ever there was a Zombie outbreak, "nerds" and gamers will outlive us. They have been training for years.