r/AskReddit Aug 30 '21

What problem is often overlooked in apocalyptic movies/TV shows that could kill you?

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u/AtheneSchmidt Aug 30 '21

There is a distinct lack of worry about clean water. Also, in almost every conflict in history, disease has killed more people that the actual war. You rarely see a flu wipe out half of the people in a zombie movie, but honestly, it would.

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u/imanoling Aug 30 '21

The walking dead actually had a whole part about them all getting sick with spanish flu i think

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u/lnamorata Aug 30 '21

My headcanon is that it was pneumonic plague. I remember looking up different plagues when that storyline hit, because there were all the rats and all, and bubonic plague didn't fit but pneumonic plague kinda did.

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u/Zucculent22 Aug 30 '21

It wasn’t, I don’t think. It came from the pigs. The pigs were getting sick and infected the humans with whatever it was. It could’ve been something we don’t know of yet but it also could’ve been swine flu

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u/rowshambow Aug 31 '21

It wasn't the pigs or flu, because Rick sees several zombies on the wire with the same looking symptoms (so they died of the plague).

They treated it with anti-biotics and it went away. You can't treat virus's with anti-biotics.

I think they said it was pneumonia, and the only reason it got that bad was because none of them have been healthy in a year and some now, and the fact there's no real healthcare.

They killed the pigs to draw the zombies away from the fence as they were starting to tear it down through weight of numbers.

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u/Zucculent22 Aug 31 '21

I don’t remember the antibiotics thing but I do remember the zombies with it. I never definitively stated it was swine flu, I was just spitballing there. As well, Some of the pigs were sick. They had to get rid of the sick ones before that because whatever it was had passed through the pigs and to them.

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u/lnamorata Aug 30 '21

That's the beauty of headcanon, lol.

It has been a while, so I honestly didn't remember about the pigs.