Zombies Gets to University of Michigan

                                     

Students Shara Evans, of West Bloomfield, Mich., left, and Maia Frieser, of New York, act during a “zombie

At least that’s what a University of Michigan professor hopes her 31 graduate students took away from Tuesday’s bizarre, albeit bloody, “zombie apocalypse.” The classroom exercise was designed to get School of Public Health students thinking about what the appropriate response should be during a disaster.

Four times as many students who typically attend Epidemiology 651, “Epidemiology and Public Health Management of Disasters,” were on hand Tuesday to welcome — or become — the undead. The zombie exercise was modeled after a curriculum designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a handful of CDC staffers also participated.

“‘Zombie apocalypse’ sounds a bit silly, but the point of this is to show that if we’re prepared for any hazard, even the unimaginable hazards, like zombies — because we know they don’t exist — we are capable of preparing ourselves for perhaps anything that might occur,” said Dr. Eden Wells, the epidemiology professor who teaches the course and serves as the brains behind the exercise.

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