On 27 Feb 2016 at 22:27, Timothy Collinson wrote:

> > Great example of that last is Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy.
> >
> > as part of the background, somebody developed a cure for some forms
> > of cancer that was a modified version of the Marburg virus ("Marburg
> > Amberlee"). It was safe it couldn't survive in the wild, the
> patients
> > had to be fed some special amino acid or something or it couldn't
> > reproduce.
> >
> > A guy named Kellis was working on a cure for the common cold. it was
> > another virus intended to spread much like colds do. It was still in
> > the testing stage when some well meaning idiots broke into the lab
> > and released it into the wild. ("They've got a cure for the cold!
> > They must be withholding it because of the [fill in conspiracy
> > theory]").
> >
> > The Kellis virus *did* cure the common cold. Alas it spread to
> > someone who was undergoing treatment with the Marburg-Amberlee
> virus.
> > Amnd as sometimes happens, the viruses liked each other and sort of
> > scroo-bred (yes, this does happen).
> >
> > The result was Kellis-Amberlee.
> >
> > It still prevented the common cold. And cured some cancers.
> >
> > But if someone carrying it (ie most of the population) got
> sufficient
> > damage, they underwent "viral amplification". Which turned it from a
> > passive infection to an active one. And for all intents and purposes
> > turned the body into a zombie.
> >
> > This results in a zombie apocalypse. The books start around 20 years
> > *after* that.No, they haven't found a cure. And btw, anyy mammal
> over
> > 50 pounds can be affected.
> >
> > That sort of thing could still happen even with the sort of genetic
> > engineering I described above. Because both virii were fine. It was
> > an unexpected *interaction* that did the damage. Of course, with
> that
> > level of geneering, they could probably whip up a cure fairly fast.
> > But there'd still be problems.
> >
> > To paraphrase something someone said a few decades back "The higher
> > the TL the easier it is for an 'average person' to cause the end of
> > the world."
> >
> Love the idea.

One of her recent blog entries was about how she kept contacting
epidemiologiss at the CDC to see if her ideas were workable.

They kept telling her "no, that won't work because..."

then one day they told her "please don't do *that*...."

And that's when she knew she had a workable scenario.

> Not sure I fancy reading the books - or are they not as dark as they
> sound!?

Of course they are dark in a lot of places. But, remember, they are
set 20 years *after* the "zombie apocalypse".

Society has changed a lot, but there *is* a society and civilization.

the first book has the viewpoint chartacters as bloggers (as
respectable as reporters are now) covering the presidential campaign.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com