Watch out for zombies! No, not hacked computers ... zombies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was joking when it published a preparedness and disaster awareness kit to prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse -- wasn't it?
Hold the phones. Forget about the rapture. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we need to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.
You read it correctly. The Health and Human Services Department's agency is reportedly experiencing a huge boost in website traffic following a May 16 official CDC Health Matters Blog posting by Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan that seeks to help people prepare for any disaster, even possible zombie attacks.
The CDC zombie apocalypse blog post has had high visibility on Google News and Twitter, with the topic "Zombie Apocalypse," trending as one of the most popular on each of those services during periods on May 19.
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“There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for,” Khan wrote on the blog. “Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.”
The blog post goes on to provide a brief history of zombies in film and literature, following by a list of items for a preparedness emergency kit that includes water, food, tools and supplies, medication and documents. There also are tips on emergency planning.
Twitter comments have been fast and furious.
“A stroke of social media genius,” one person tweeted. “So the CDC posts zombie survival tips … And you thought I was crazy,” read another tweet.
The CDC recently published a social media dashboard and a toolkit for using social media online.