T-Rex: A TERRIFYING ZOMBIE STORY, by me, T-Rex.
T-Rex: One day an alive woman died. OR DID SHE? Because now she's... A ZOMBIE!!
T-Rex: Can I get a what what?
T-Rex: Our zombie woman is Patient Zero of the zombie outbreak, which suggests to the attentive reader that we're using an infection model of zombification. Let R0 be the threshold quantity of infections. If R0 is less than one, then the infection will die out. If it's equal to one, then the disease will remain endemic in the population. And the more above one R0 is, the greater the epidemic!
T-Rex: So to quantify our zombie terror, all we need to do is calculate R0!
Utahraptor: Can I hear about the people she bites?
T-Rex: Assuming N population and a contact rate of β, then our zombie will make βN bites per time unit, resulting in infections with a mean infectious period of 1/γ: γ being of course the mean recovery rate. Therefore, R0 = (βN)/γ!
Utahraptor: Does she bite anyone she knew from before? Like, her kids maybe?
T-Rex: These metrics are simplified, as natural immunity is not factored into N. Different compartmental epidemic models may provide different results!
Off panel: Is there any of the old her left inside that shambling horror??
Off panel: I -
Off panel: I wonder sometimes
