Originally Posted by vhawk01
True story:
I really like zombies. I like books about zombies, zombie movies, you name it. For some reason, they are just the most interesting and badass of all the classic horror villains, imo. I dont want to hear your vampire nonsense, vampires are just basically emo zombies. I particularly enjoy the recent trend in the zombie genre of playing up the viral, medical possibilities of zombies, based in some part probably on Haitian "zombies" and other medical oddities. With this in mind, while on my neurology rotation last year, me and a like-minded classmate spent probably a good 4 hours each day, for 2 weeks, discussing the medical intricacies and minutae of zombies. We would pimp our residents on zombie questions, we would present patients in the morning as "Not presently showing signs of zombification" and we would discuss the steps the hospital was prepared to take in the event of (inevitable in our opinion) zombie uprising and epidemic.
This was probably more amusing to the two of us than to those around us, but as we were not officially disciplined, we continued to build up steam. Now, a quick aside is in order: the logistics of medical services are essentially this. At the bottom you have between 1 and 3 third year medical students (M3s). Above them you have an optional M4. Above that is the residents, from intern (PGY1) to the chief of the service (PGY3 to PGY5). Above that you will have an attending who is ultimately responsible for the decisions the team makes, but who in general plays more of an advisory role. He is somewhat responsible for educating the M3, but as you can see in the hierarchy, we are enough steps below him that interaction is generally minimal. In rare instances you are able to build a rapport though, and this was just such an attending. After a week or so of this zombie discussion, we finally decided to broach the subject with him. But we, perhaps unwisely, didnt exactly build up to it. He made the mistake of asking us if we had any questions or anything we wanted to learn about, so I asked him, absolutely deadpan, "Dr. XXXXXX....do you think that zombism crosses the placental barrier? I mean, some viruses are capable, but I wasnt able to find any reliable literature on the subject, so I was just wondering." To his credit (as an educator, if not as an expert on zombies) he paused, considered, and responded "Female zombies are sterile, they cannot get pregnant." Well, the first and really only rule of med student rounds is that you do not, under any circumstances, correct the attending, no matter how obviously wrong he is. So, my classmate and I accepted this answer and continued on with rounds.
Moral of the story: Can you believe they grant medical licenses to people who dont even realize that you get pregnant FIRST, and are then BITTEN by a zombie, and thus it is ABSOLUTELY potentially a concern whether zombism crosses the placental barrier?