[derrell]

Originally Posted by jinlo

Any incident in an area with low population density which is detected within 12 hours can be handled quickly and quietly by a two man sniper team, a trained disposal unit, and a qualified medical officer skilled in early infection identification. For more populated areas, it's believed that a SWAT team with specific undead elimination training is the best option to handle an outbreak of up to a hundred Zombies. The larger problem in these situations is maintaining media control of the event. Larger outbreaks would require a combination of assets and a strategy based on the region in question.

Quick decisive response is the most important element to controlling these outbreaks. However I have to disagree with your stance on controlling the media. I've come to the conclusion that the continued media blackout on these incidents is one of the main reasons that when there is an outbreak it has a tendency to spiral out of control rather quickly.

Having spoken to several first responders they all agree that if the population at large only knew that they were at risk the number of infected would drop dramatically in an outbreak. They all mentioned at least two separate cases where public knowledge would help.

Initially if people knew what to look for there would be a reduction in what they called Good Samaritan infections. These are the people who see someone stumbling along and try to help them. Most of the time these people are bitten and manage to escape. With these there is the risk that they will pass the virus on to someone close to them through transfer of bodily fluids as well as the fact that they will be zombies in a few hours. If they only knew what signs to watch for they could easily avoid the single zombie and call the authorities. There is also the possibility that they could end the entire outbreak right there by dispatching the infected if they are sure that it is indeed a zombie. All of the responders that I've spoken with agree that they would much rather find a 'dead' zombie when they arrive at the scene.

The second case is the panic and fear of the unknown that manifests once the outbreak becomes a little larger. You get crowds of panicked people trying to flee in cities and even the large towns. These crowds not only hamper the response teams but there is also the risk of spreading the virus. Such crowds always have people who have been exposed but are still ambulatory and rounding all of these up is always a problem. If people knew that the correct response is to stay put behind locked doors in an interior room of their homes the jobs of the responders would be much simpler.

I've argued for some time that this shroud of secrecy is not needed and is indeed harmful. There continue to be some very entrenched beliefs however concerning what the public does and does not need to know. I say that now is the time to bring the existence of the undead out of the closet as it were and trust that the general public can and should help prevent a Zombie Apocalypse level event.