Pandemic  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν pan "all" + δῆμος demos "people") is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic. Further, flu pandemics exclude seasonal flu, unless the flu of the season is a pandemic. Throughout history there have been a number of pandemics, such as smallpox and tuberculosis. More recent pandemics include the HIV pandemic and the 2009 flu pandemic.

In popular culture

Pandemics appear in multiple fiction works. A common use is in disaster films, where the protagonists must avoid the effects of the plague, for example zombies.

Literature

• The Decameron, a 14th-century writing by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, circa 1353
• The Last Man, an 1826 novel by Mary Shelley
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider, a 1939 short novel by Katherine Anne Porter
• The Plague, a 1947 novel by Albert Camus
• Earth Abides, a 1949 novel by George R. Stewart
• I Am Legend, a 1954 science fiction/horror novel by American writer Richard Matheson
• The Andromeda Strain, a 1969 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton
• The Last Canadian, a 1974 novel by William C. Heine
• The Black Death, a 1977 novel by Gwyneth Cravens describing an outbreak of the Pneumonic plague in New York
• The Stand, a 1978 novel by Stephen King
• And the Band Played On, a 1987 non-fiction account by Randy Shilts about the emergence and discovery of the HIV / AIDS pandemic
• Doomsday Book, a 1992 time-travel novel by Connie Willis
• The Last Town on Earth, a 2006 novel by Thomas Mullen
• World War Z, a 2006 novel by Max Brooks
• Company of Liars (2008), by Karen Maitland
• The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin with The Passage (2010), The Twelve (2012), and The City of Mirrors (2016)
• Station Eleven, a 2014 novel by Emily St. John Mandel

Film

• The Seventh Seal (1957), set during the Black Death
• The Last Man on Earth (1964), a horror/science fiction film based on the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend
• Andromeda Strain (1971), a U.S. science fiction film based on the 1969 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton.
• The Omega Man (1971), an English science fiction film, based on the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend
• And the Band Played On (film) (1993), a HBO movie about the emergence of the HIV / AIDS pandemic; based on the 1987 novel by Randy Shilts
• The Stand (1994), based on the eponymous novel by Stephen King about a worldwide pandemic of biblical proportions
• The Horseman on the Roof (Le Hussard sur le Toit) (1995), a French film dealing with an 1832 cholera outbreak
• Twelve Monkeys (1995), set in a future world devastated by a man-made virus
• Outbreak (1995), fiction film focusing on an outbreak of an Ebola-like virus in Zaire and later in a small town in California.
• Smallpox 2002 (2002), a fictional BBC docudrama
• 28 Days Later (2002), a fictional horror film following the outbreak of an infectious 'Rage' virus that destroys all of mainland Britain
• Yesterday (2004), a movie about the social aspects of the AIDS crisis in Africa.
• End Day (2005), a fictional BBC docudrama
• I Am Legend (2007), a horror film starring Will Smith based on the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend
• 28 Weeks Later (2007), the sequel film to 28 Days Later, ending with the evident spread of infection to mainland Europe
• The Happening (2008), a fictional suspense film about an epidemic caused by an unknown neurotoxin that induces human suicides to reduce population and restore ecological balance
• Doomsday (2008), in which Scotland is quarantined following an epidemic
• Black Death (2010) action horror film set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England
• After Armageddon (2010), fictional History Channel docudrama
• Contagion (2011), American thriller centering on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak
• How to Survive a Plague (2012), a documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic
• World War Z (2013) American apocalyptic action horror film based on the novel by Max Brooks
• The Normal Heart (2014), film depicts the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984

Television

• Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (2009), a television drama
• Helix (2014–2015), a television series that depicts a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who are tasked to prevent pandemics from occurring.
• The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018), a television series about a group of survivors after a pandemic has wiped out most life (humans and animals) on Earth
• 12 Monkeys (2015–2018), a television series that depicts James Cole, a time traveler, who travels from the year 2043 to the present day to stop the release of a deadly virus.
• Survivors (1975–1977), classic BBC series created by Terry Nation. The series follows a group of people as they come to terms with the aftermath of a world pandemic.
• Survivors (2008), BBC series, loosely based on the Terry Nation book that came after the series, instead of a retelling of the original TV series.
• The Last Train 1999 written by Matthew Graham
• World Without End (2012), chronicles the experiences of the medieval English town of Kingsbridge during the outbreak of the Black Death, based on Ken Follett's 2007 novel of the same name.
• The Hot Zone (2019), a television series based on the 1994 non-fiction book of the same name by Richard Preston.
• Pandemic: How to Prevent An Outbreak (2020), Netflix's docuseries
• The Walking Dead (2010–), a virus appears that kills people and then revives them by turning them into zombies. An Atlanta group will try to survive in this new, post-apocalyptic world

Games

• Resident Evil series (1996-2020), video game series focusing on T-virus pandemic and eventual zombie apocalypse as part of a bioterrorism act. The video games later evolved to be focusing on parasites and bioweapons.
• Deus Ex, A World Wide Plague known as grey death infects the world created by Majestic 12 to bring about population reduction and New World order.
• Pandemic (2008), a cooperative board game in which the players have to discover the cures for four diseases that break out at the same time.
• Plague Inc. (2012), a smartphone game from Ndemic Creations, where the goal is to kill off the human race with a plague.
• The Last of Us (2013), a post-apocalyptic survival game on PS3 and PS4 by Naughty Dog.
• Tom Clancy's The Division (2015) A video game about a bioterrorist attack that has devastated the United States and thrown New York into anarchy.

See also

• Epidemic
• Endemic
• Syndemic
• Pandemic Severity Index
• Biological hazard
• Bioterrorism
• Biological warfare
• Influenza pandemic
• Mortality from infectious diseases
• Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
• Medieval demography
• Globalization and disease
• Tropical diseases
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
• WHO pandemic phases