All language subtitles for Evacuate.Earth.5of7.Zombie.Earth

A disease that turns men into monsters.

A medical establishment on the verge of
collapse.

A world consumed by fear.

Could a real life zombie apocalypse wipe
humanity from the face of the globe?

This would be a virus that could cause
civilization to collapse.

Leading minds join forces to craft
scientifically plausible scenarios of

Armageddon.

And find the secret to human salvation
in the

face of ultimate disaster.

Let's drop him in.

We're in.

Okay.

A lot of us have the impression that
human beings have tamed Earth.

That we are the masters of this planet.

That, however, is an illusion.

We're in tight.

Good? Good. Now come on up here.

An illusion that's pretty easily
revealed when you look at what's

right now in the field of infectious
disease.

Coming up on the morning. Grab the buoy.
We are in an era of many emerging

infectious diseases, and by that I mean
diseases that we have never come into

contact with or diseases that we have
come into contact with but are appearing

in some different way.

They are increasing in frequency for
some reason, and this is a huge problem.

Looks like a humpback to me.

These viruses can emerge from totally
unexpected sources.

Getting so close.

We have no protection against them.

There's no question. An unexpected virus
that we have no immunity against, where

there's no vaccines available, this kind
of virus.

Should emerge into the population.

Yeah, it shouldn't be in the harbor
unless it's sick.

This would be a nightmare scenario for
the world.

In a tragic incident this morning.

A humpback whale attacked a sailboat in
Provincetown Harbor, killing a 48 -year

-old sailing instructor and his 19 -year
-old students.

The whale then swam in circles for two
hours before beating itself.

The Massachusetts Department of Fish and
Wildlife, assisted by teachers and

students from Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute, are now performing a

This whale attacked a sailboat, which is
very unusual.

So we're hoping to find a clue to that
behavior, especially in the brain of the

whale.

One theory is that the whale may have
been suffering from an illness that

affected its behavior.

Where do new diseases come from?

There are several sources, but one of
the most common is from other species.

The animal kingdom.

These are referred to as zoonotic
diseases.

We have many dramatic diseases that have
come into the human population,

usually from other species.

Ebola is one that's very famous. SARS,
which spread a little bit more, which

originated probably in bats. We were
almost certain about that.

When we think about zoonotic diseases,
diseases that are spread from animals,

think about some kind of transmission
path, the person and the animal coming

direct contact.

So is there a scenario where people are
dissecting a whale which has died

on a beach?

Could someone then become infected,
especially if a person has cuts?

Absolutely, there would be a way.

Well, it's a messy process.

I got a small cut on my finger, but that
happens.

So what would a doomsday virus look
like?

Well, there is one virus that stands
out. If it was just changed or mutated

slightly, it wouldn't just cause the
death of millions of people, but it

create a virtual army.

Of zombie -like victims.

It would be the ultimate doomsday
infection.

That virus is rabies.

Rabies is a virus that infects all
mammals.

No other virus does this, has such a
wide range of

hosts that it can infect.

It's usually spread by the bite of an
animal that's infected.

The scary thing about the virus is it
really heads towards the nervous system.

Once the rabies virus gets into a nerve
cell, it redirects the function of the

cell to start replicating the virus.

Slowly but surely...

You get viral replication up through all
of the nerves into the spinal cord in

the brain.

Almost everybody who shows signs of the
disease we call rabies dies.

It's essentially a death sentence.

The brain cells that regulate the
muscles of breathing basically are

and your...

paralyzed and not able to breathe, and
that's the method of death.

The speed with which rabies kills people
is terrifying.

What's also terrifying is what happens
to rabies victims before they die.

In many ways, rabies is a kind of zombie
-like or zombie -making disease because

it eats the brain.

When it hits the brain, that's when the
problems begin.

That's when the symptoms begin.

Anxiety ridden, hallucinations, foaming
at the mouth, people as well as animals.

The animal now attacks other animals.
The animal becomes vicious.

When rabies starts to destroy cells that
are responsible for inhibiting

aggressive behavior, anything can
happen.

So why don't we hear more about rabies?
Why isn't rabies a virus that makes us

scared?

Firstly, it's not transmitted easily.
You have to be bitten. You have to be

scratched. You have to have an animal
slobber on you who has rabies. Then you

can catch the virus.

But what if rabies changed or mutated?

What if the virus somehow developed the
ability to spread more easily?

But not just through bodily fluids like
saliva, but through the air.

That would change everything.

This is what scientists worry about.

I mean, this would be a virus that could
cause civilization to collapse.

Is rabies the most dangerous virus on
the planet?

It's only not considered the most
dangerous virus because it's not

easily.

If a new strain of rabies developed, one
that could be transferred through the

air, that could be the deadliest virus
this planet has ever seen.

Where's the other one?

It's right over here.

They're both suffering from the same
symptoms.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me,
but... This could be rabies.

Two people detained yesterday by
Falmouth police were found dead in their

this morning. They had been arrested
separately on charges of disorderly

conduct.

Autopsies are currently underway to
determine the cause of death.

To diagnose rabies, you actually have to
be thinking of it, because you have to

use special stains to look at it in the
brain, or you have to culture it in

special media to see if you have the
virus.

If you look in the brain of rabies
patients in autopsy,

you can see deposits of virus where the

virus has actually been growing and
obviously destroyed cells in the brain.

Autopsy results have revealed that the
man and woman found dead in the Falmouth

jail Tuesday morning had been infected
with the rabies virus.

A medical investigation is now underway
to determine how they contacted the

disease and what connection, if any,
there is between the two cases.

We've done a great job of controlling
rabies in the Western world.

So if two people contracted rabies at
the same time, alarm bells would go off.

One of the first things that would
happen is that public health officials

look for the common links between the
two cases.

It's incredibly important to figure out
exactly what the source was because you

need to prevent other people from
getting sick.

Just basic detective work, trying to
find people who may be infected or may

been exposed by interviewing, finding
out who they were in contact with.

Since the diagnosis is made after death,
you would probably have to be talking

to the family members to find out what
the patient's been doing.

We ask them tons of questions, and we
try to figure out a common source.

Rabies, as far as we know, infects all
mammals.

That includes mammals on land, and it
includes mammals in the water.

We know marine mammals, such as seals,
have contracted rabies before.

Whales have never tested positive for
the virus.

But under the right circumstances, it's
certainly possible that they could.

Where could a new, more contagious
version of the rabies virus come from?

Viruses change all the time in nature,
but there's another way that they can

change.

And that is by our own hands.

Human beings manipulate disease -causing
agents in laboratories all the time.

Some of these experiments have led to
great medical achievements, like

or even in the fight against cancer.

Cancer killing viruses.

There are many labs who are working on
this, and it's very successful right

This is why viruses are mainly
genetically engineered today.

But there are also experiments that make
viruses more dangerous and more deadly.

And those are the kind that can create
an end -of -the -world scenario.

Those experiments really do happen,
probably more often than we'd like to

All of the work we do with infectious
diseases obviously can save many lives,

but could also be twisted by people who
may want to use it for harming others.

Any technology can be used for both good
and nefarious purposes.

After the Second World War, Britain, the
former Soviet Union, the United

States, they all had some form of
biological weapons program.

Then, in the early 1970s, The Biological
Weapons Convention outlawed these types

of experiments, but that didn't mean it
stopped.

The Soviets just continued in secret.

They developed this huge network of labs
that they called biopreparate.

Something like 30 ,000 employees
continued to produce bioweapons in these

For years, they kept this all secret,
but in 1979, there was an accident.

Anthrax spores leaked out of one of the
labs into the surrounding community.

More than 60 Soviet citizens died.

It was the worst known human anthrax
outbreak in history.

It was simple human error that caused
that anthrax outbreak.

But who's to say that someone else's
human error wouldn't cause an even worse

outbreak?

Even with strict precautions in place,
there are many ways materials like this

can escape a controlled environment.

You can't safeguard 100 % of the time,
not when people are involved and

can be made.

Take a deadly transmissible agent.

Add the possibility of human error, and
you now have the recipe for the worst

disease outbreak we've ever seen.

What's up, Dave?

Hey, what's up, David? How you feeling,
man?

At this point, a genetically modified
virus, deadly and easily spread, has

its way out of the lab and into the
environment. A virus, modified and so

that it now threatens to extinguish the
entire human race.

People wouldn't just get sick and die.
They could transform into zombie -like

madmen, spreading violence along with
the disease.

If the rabies virus developed a way to
be transmitted from person to person.

That would be an apocalyptic
catastrophe.

So if someone were to modify rabies to
make it easier to spread between people,

how would they do it?

This would have to be a virus that
infected the upper respiratory tract.

And this would be done by making it
transmitted through aerosols, through

coughing, through sneezing.

A great example of an airborne disease
is influenza.

Influenza is spread incredibly easy from
person to person. If you're standing

anywhere near somebody who has
influenza, you can get it simply from

that comes out of their mouth when
they're talking.

The act of normal human speech can carry
thousands of germs just on the moisture

of your breath.

If rabies became transmissible like the
flu, you'd have a killer cocktail on

your hands.

People will be coughing, sneezing, 100
,000 virus particles get released into

the air.

Everybody in that room could potentially
come down with rabies.

From a single event, one person can
infect a lot of people, and they can go

to infect many, many, many people, and
then they can go on to infect many, many

people.

The growth is exponential.

If rabies were to spread like that, it
would spread without any kind of

restriction.

If you don't think it's possible, just
look what happened during the flu

epidemic of 1918.

Millions of people died when the
pandemic of 1918 occurred.

Probably as many as 100 million people
died throughout the world.

From this one strain of the virus, in
five weeks of this virus, more people

than died from the Black Plague.

More people died in five weeks than died
in 25 years of HIV.

So if we had a version of the rabies
virus that spread as easily as the flu,

would the medical establishment prevent
a pandemic from happening?

Well, chances are they couldn't, because
they probably wouldn't even know it was

happening. Rabies is a difficult virus
to detect.

Before it reaches the brain, there are
no symptoms. You feel perfectly normal.

During this phase, if the virus was able
to be transmitted from person to

person, then you could potentially be
transmitting this virus to people

even knowing that you had the virus.

And it could potentially take months
before the first symptoms appear.

And until then, You would just be
carrying on your normal life, subways,

airplanes, supermarkets.

So what will happen when the disease
finally begins to show itself?

A person would first start experiencing
flu -like symptoms.

You feel malaise. You feel tired. You
feel like you have sort of a viral

infection. Then the virus would start
manifesting its brain symptoms.

That's when the problems begin.

We've had five cases in the last hour.
Fever, slight constipation, trouble

swallowing. They're highly agitated,
yelling, screaming.

They won't distill. We don't know what
to do.

I'm calling security.

Call the police.

I can imagine how natural cases of
rabies would look like a zombie.

Please get out. The similarities are
very interesting in the destruction of

brain, the way people's behavior
changes.

And when you put a lot of people
together, it's a very tragic thing to

Yes, hello, this is the ER. We cannot
see any more patients tonight.

operators in Toronto, Los Angeles, New
York, and other major North American

cities are overwhelmed tonight.

I'm so scared.

After a string of violent assaults led
to an explosion of new cases of rabies.

Authorities are asking people not to
approach anyone who could be rabid, even

friends and family.

This outbreak comes on the heels of an
announcement that a highly contagious

airborne strain of the rabies virus has
infected people in at least 18

countries. Some are calling it a... The
media will get

right on top of this and report it.
They'll have medical experts on.

There'll be reports from the CDC in
Atlanta as to what's being done.

It's necessary in order to get people to
do whatever can be done to slow the

infection and the hope would be to stop
the infection.

But all of these things, unfortunately,
will frighten people.

There's no cure for rabies. Once you
develop symptoms, it's universally

But there is a vaccine.

The vaccine can prevent people from
getting rabies infection.

But the rabies vaccine can also be used
for something called post -exposure

prophylaxis. So even if you're exposed
to the rabies virus, if you get the

vaccine in time, it can prevent
infection and prevent the onset of

But once you have symptoms, even the
first symptoms, that's it.

The only treatment now is make yourself
comfortable because it's the end. You're

going to die.

We have arrived at a critical moment.

How many do you have in the hot zone?

Because we have this vaccine, one of the
first things that public health

officials would do is to administer the
vaccine to people who are exposed to the

rabies virus or at risk of being exposed
to the rabies virus.

It's one thing to have an effective
vaccine. It's quite another to be able

administer that vaccine to millions or
even billions of people in a very rapid

fashion. Right now, they keep the number
of doses pretty low. There are not that

many people who have the potential to
become infected by rabies every year.

There's only...

A number of doses that range in the
thousands.

Hospitals have a few doses. Clinics have
a few doses.

The problem with the vaccine is, A, we
don't have enough of it, and B, it takes

a while to produce.

Large amounts of rabies virus would have
to be grown.

The virus would have to be isolated and
inactivated.

Then it has to be formulated with
stabilizers and preservatives. This

does not happen quickly.

We don't have much capacity for making a
lot of vaccine. If there were a big

rabies outbreak, it would take literally
months to be able to make a vaccine to

protect the uninfected.

But even once the vaccine is ready,
you'll have a whole new set of problems

your hands.

When you're facing a mass illness, There
are huge ethical and social problems

that come with it. First of all, who
gets the vaccine if there's a limited

supply? I think

there's no question that there would be
a panic

among people to try to get a hold of a
vaccine.

Everyone wants to live. They're going to
want their families to live.

These kinds of situations in which
there's a limited amount of cure and a

huge number of people who need it never
work out well for most people.

Remember, in this scenario, the rabies
infecting the world isn't normal rabies,

but something created in a laboratory to
be more transmissible and more deadly.

Would this virus be the same as the
rabies strains that are now around?

Possibly not.

So that rabies virus would not be
affected by the vaccine. People

who were vaccinated and thought they
were protected would not be.

If they started dying from rabies, then
this would amplify

the catastrophe.

close to 1 billion.

Several governments in Africa, South
America, and Asia have simply ceased

functioning after officials fled their
posts.

Fearing infection, vigilantes across the
globe have taken it upon themselves to

execute rabies sufferers on Sunday.

The parties warn this does little to
stem the tide of infection and is only

adding to the bloodshed.

So what could we do if the vaccination
strategy failed?

We might turn to some of the oldest
techniques in history for preventing

epidemics, quarantine and isolation.

But how do you quarantine a population
of billions that has basically turned

into zombies?

What can we do at this point? There's a
worldwide pandemic of our own

making. It's turning people into virtual
zombies.

There's no vaccine. There's no cure.

What can we do now to save ourselves
from extinction?

Please pay careful attention to this
message. Now protect yourself and your

family.

There are two classic ways that we use
to reduce the spread of infectious

diseases in populations.

The first method is quarantine, where
people who may have been exposed to the

disease but are not yet showing symptoms
have their movements restricted.

The second method is isolation, where
people who have symptoms of the disease

are removed from the population to
prevent further spread.

broadcast at least 32 countries have
imposed strict quarantine restrictions

within their borders the u .s surgeon
general is

asking anyone living in a community with
even one reported rabies case to stay

indoors

Quarantine is when you put a person
who's not yet sick, they're still well,

they've been exposed, you isolate them,
you prevent them from going out.

The problem then becomes, those people
can't go out to get food, those people

can't go out to do their laundry, those
people can't go out to do anything.

Plans have to be made to make sure that
those people are fed and they have

enough water to drink, clothes to wear.

It gets very, very hard to enforce
because people don't like to be cooped

a long time.

I think that there's a philosophy that
if you feel well, you are well. You

feel sick.

You don't think you are sick. You don't
see the point of having to sit at home

for days.

But you could be sick and you could
infect others.

If you have a virus that's easily
transmitted from person to person, A

quarantine may very well not be
effective.

That's been tried for influenza virus
over the years.

It doesn't work.

And in this scenario, quarantining
seemingly healthy individuals would

the easy part.

Trying to isolate people who are already
showing symptoms would be even more

difficult.

Isolation is when you prevent somebody
from going out who is known to have the

disease. Anyone who was identified as
getting sick would have to be isolated

a central site. They would use things
like VA hospitals or other government

facilities.

What you have to factor in now is that
the people you're trying to isolate,

can be irrational and violent.

If the volume of sick people were heavy
enough, they would overwhelm any

facility that was available, and there
were agitated people who were not

adhering to their isolation, that system
would break down.

As law enforcement fall prey to this
illness, there'll be a breakdown of law

order in our society.

And that becomes a self -perpetuating,
vicious cycle in which eventually

everything is destroyed.

With rabid people overflowing into the
street, we're going to have to switch

strategies immediately.

There's always the possibility of
reverse quarantine, where people who are

get together and keep out people who are
sick.

There's a phrase called cordon
sanitaire, which refers to the idea of

off an entire community, city, town from
interaction with the outside world.

Nobody can go in and nobody can go out.

In 1918, during the famous Spanish flu,
one town,

Gunnison, Colorado, actually decided
that it did not want to have the flu

come.

So it posted armed guards.

Everybody stayed in town. No one had yet
caught the flu, and no one was allowed

to leave. If they left, they were not
allowed to come back.

Gunnison managed to escape the
influenza, but those were very draconian

measures, very carefully enforced.

The problem is the ability to contain
one...

cluster of people in one town may be
very, very difficult.

Every community right now relies on
every other community. To think that you

just band some of your neighbors
together in an isolated place and

is, I think, very wishful thinking.

Good morning. Can I see some ID, please?
Can you keep out people who are

infected? We're Joe Connor.

Joe Connor, good to go.

Thank you very much, sir. Please.

If infected people are showing signs of
aggression, this is going to be a

difficult situation.

Now,

part of the problem in dealing with the
infected is you have a mixed bag. People

at various stages of the disease.

Some might be semi -rational, while
others might be hostile and

You're also going to have people that
are sick, but don't realize they're

demanding food, shelter, and protection
from a virus they already have.

Can we really create a rabies -free
zone?

There is one unusual manifestation of
rabies disease and it could prove useful

in establishing rabies -free zones.

There is one symptom that humanity could
conceivably use to protect itself.

Everything we usually use to combat
disease is failing in this scenario.

Vaccinations aren't working, isolation
isn't working, quarantine isn't working.

So all we've got left is to try to keep
the rabid people at bay, away from

healthy people.

And one way we might be able to do that
successfully is by using water.

It's well documented that rabies
infection causes hydrophobia, a fear of

We don't really know why, but because
rabies infects nerve cells that control

the throat muscles, swallowing can
become difficult and even painful.

It's this difficulty swallowing that
causes people with rabies to foam at the

mouth.

This is because even swallowing saliva
becomes difficult.

So it's very normal when you see water,
you swallow to reflex.

But if you have trouble swallowing, then
every time you see water and you can't

swallow, you become scared of water.

With mass quantities of water, you could
conceivably prevent people with rabies

from entering communities, towns,
buildings, anything like that.

Of course, there's no guarantee that
this would work.

It is a long shot.

But hydrophobia is one of the most
consistent and potent symptoms among

sufferers.

But even if the most successfully kept
out rabid people, it might not be a

rabies -free zone because the virus
might find a way to get in.

Transmission of rabies could occur in
ways that we would never even think of.

Remember, infectious agents can mutate.
Viruses have been known to change in the

wild during outbreaks.

As a virus mutates, we have no idea of
where its limits could

be. You can imagine that it could become
even more transmissible and it could

continue to jump species.

The real danger is that the virus could
find its way into other species that we

can't control.

A virus like this could be carried by
mosquitoes or ticks or mice. At that

point, the idea of isolation and
quarantine would be much more difficult.

Once that happens, no place on Earth is
safe from the virus.

After the virus finds its way into each
rabies -free zone, you'd see the same

pattern over and over and over again.

and until humans are teetering on the
verge of extinction.

So, is there really a chance of survival
in this kind of rabid zombie

apocalypse?

There might be one hope for humanity to
avoid extinction, something that's been

with us all along.

There may be some hope in a situation
like this because of the phenomenon of

natural immunity.

Natural immunity is when an individual
or some group are naturally immune

to a disease, meaning they can be
exposed to it and they will not get

We all have resistance to different
infectious diseases.

Some of these are genes that, you know,
we were lucky enough to get from our

parents that may protect us.

About 10 % of northern Europeans are
resistant to HIV. Even though they're in

the presence of the virus, they don't
become infected.

They're not becoming infected because
the virus doesn't have the ability to

into their cells.

Because their cells are different.

So what if there are a group of people
alive today that are immune to rabies?

There is some suggestion that in the
Peruvian rainforest, there are

some groups that are very isolated who
have natural immunity to rabies.

They will not get sick when exposed to
it. Part of their immune system is

somehow primed to fight off that
infection.

If they have the antibodies to rabies,
it means that they've been exposed to

virus. But they're still alive. They
didn't get a vaccine, but they're alive.

Then, if you look hundreds of years in
the future, the people who populate

the planet will all be descendants from
these small pockets of people who manage

to live when everyone else dies.

Maybe humanity could get a second chance
there.

I think we really need to feel humble in
the face of the microscopic world.

Very shortly before the HIV epidemic,
someone declared the war

on infectious diseases to be won. And I
think that when we get too arrogant

about our ability to control the
microscopic world, we are actually

disaster.

It's dangerous to think that we're
invulnerable, and it's a healthy

consider how a series of events, none of
them outlandish on their own, could

come together to threaten everything we
know.

It's always valuable to imagine, to
discuss and debate these worst -case

scenarios, because that is how we are
going to prepare ourselves for whatever

the future may bring.