How Long Would A Zombie Apocalypse Actually Last?

Publish date: 2024-04-08

The report, titled "Zombie infections: epidemiology, treatment, and prevention," made use of the SIR compartmental epidemiology model, which is something you can parrot back to your friends if you ever think they're starting to suspect that you're not very smart. SIR makes use of three potential categories of living beings in a rhetorical outbreak scenario: the Susceptible, the Infected, and the Recovered. Dividing people into these categories and assuming a 90% successful infection rate for each individual shambling corpse, the study showed that the planet would be down to just about 300 uninfected humans by day 100.

A couple of things to keep in mind. Number one, the initial report didn't take into account the possibility that humans would fight back, spitting in the face of decades of Romero movies. When they factored in a 10 percent chance that each survivor would kill a zombie every day, the outlook remained grim, but the undead were all un-undead by about three years in, with the population of the planet slowly kicking back into gear in the years that (hypothetically) followed. 

Number two: the whole thing was sort of a goof perpetrated in the name of raising awareness of disaster preparedness, so keep your chin up, killer.

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