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The people of Hannover, Germany have my congratulations for dodging
the Mortosis bullet. Their authorities acted quickly and properly in
their investigation and containment of what could have become a serious
outbreak. No one wants outbreak incidents to occur anywhere in the world,
but when they do occur it is our duty to learn from them, depriving
the virus of one of its most lethal weapons; fear of the unknown.
The Hanover incident brings to light two very different though equally
important facets of Necro-Mortosis, facets we would do well to study
and control.
First, we need to control our fear at the virus and its reanimates.
Silke Koch, the
first on-record survivor of an attack by a reanimate where an exchange
of bodily fluids was almost guaranteed, did what anyone trained as a
nurse would do; she rushed to the aid of a man that seemed to be in
need. Witnesses said that even before she approached the Mortosis victim,
Eugene Becker, he exhibited
classic signs of infection. Helmut Schneider, another witness and the
boyfriend of Ms. Koch, acted as many men would have done when seeing
their significant others being attacked by rushing in to help her with
a group of onlookers in tow. Under normal circumstances, the responses
of these normal, everyday people are entirely understandable, save perhaps
for the viciousness of the defense of Ms. Koch offered by her boyfriend
and gaggle of a crowd.
Had this been a normal situation, replacing the mortosis victim with
a living man that was doing harm to another, Mr. Schneider and the rest
of the group’s response to the attack on Ms. Koch could well have
been prosecuted depending on how badly they hurt the assailant, even
though he had “started it”. Mr. Schneider was in fact held
on assault charges while authorities determined whether Mr. Becker was
indeed infected. Mr. Schneider claimed that he felt the assailant was
a reanimate before Ms. Koch even approached him. Luckily for the concerns
of Mr. Schneider’s freedom, the assailant was a reanimate since
reports of the defense offered by Mr. Schneider went well-past what
is acceptable under German law as “self-defense”.
Ms. Koch reacted as a caring human being, seeking to help another with
her medical training and upholding the fine qualities and selfless natures
of her profession we as a society often take for granted regardless
of the thought that her prospective patient may in fact be infected
with Necro-Mortosis. Mr. Schneider reacted in the defense of his lady-love,
a trait that many women would never admit to admiring but do so anyway.
The worrisome part about his role in all this comes not from that he
defended Ms. Koch, but that he chose to move the act from defense to
assault. From what little information I’ve obtained, the light
of logic sheds thusly; Ms. Koch would have reacted in the same manner
whether the prospective patient was infected or not. Sadly, it also
seems the same could be said for Mr. Schneider. Eugene Beck would have
been just as savagely beaten by Helmut Schneider had he been a hooligan
accosting Ms. Koch in a park or a Mortosis victim in an airport. Schneider
claims he thought Mr. Beck was a reanimate, yet his anger at him for
attacking Ms. Koch drove him to continue hand-to-hand combat even after
he and the group managed to separate Mr. Beck and Ms. Koch.
No single health care professional is equipped to deal with an unfettered
reanimate in the field without first subduing or otherwise confining
them. Germany isn’t some Third World nation, and I’m sure
that by now every health care professional in the industrial world has
been through more than one seminar and training class on how to deal
with Necro-Mortosis and reanimates. Ms. Koch used her training in conjunction
with her heart, instead of her head. Mr. Schneider used his desire to
prove himself a worthy protector to justify a vicious response, prolonging
the attack instead of removing Ms. Koch from the situation immediately
and reporting it to the authorities. In doing this, he exposed himself
and the rest of the onlookers to infection themselves. Had he been thinking,
he would have better spent his time removing Ms. Koch and seeking medical
attention for her instead of wasting precious time savaging Mr. Beck.
The key here is that everyone involved suspected Mr. Beck was infected
BEFORE they approached him. Even with these suspicions, they chose to
approach him anyway without so much as a call to airport security. Dear
Reader, you simply can’t do this. Had they reported sighting Mr.
Beck and his reanimate-like behavior, Ms. Koch wouldn’t have been
attacked and possibly infected and Mr. Schneider and the others wouldn’t
have exposed themselves to the same risk. This group wasn’t cornered
by a reanimate, they had plenty of room to escape without having to
come into contact with the reanimate. Their lives weren’t in danger
until they made the conscious decision to put themselves within reach
of a reanimate. In short, all involved thought with their hearts, their
oaths and their testosterone instead of using the greatest weapon we
have against the plague, a weapon the dead don’t possess; think
with your head.
Dealing with a reanimate on the hoof requires dispassion, logic and
clear thinking. Emotional responses to a “live-fire” reanimate
encounter can only end in disaster. Reports indicate Mr. Beck was somewhat
“freshly turned”, meaning that many of his bodily fluids
would have still been thin enough to leave the body in the traditional
manner of a street fight such as the one Mr. Schneider administered
and create a serious infection hazard for anyone within range of an
errant drop of blood. We can’t fight Mortosis and destroy reanimates
as if we were in a soccer riot. Unless you’re willing to be properly
trained and equipped to deal with a suspected reanimate, or escape simply
isn’t an option, your first duties to yourselves and the world
at large is to get away, get safe and get help. We have to stop trying
to fight the plague and the undead with our hearts. Compassion, caring
and testosterone must give way to logic and common sense when Necro-Mortosis
infection is suspected. Many outbreaks have their start with family
and friends of the reanimate and even medical and emergency service
workers trying to help them only to become infected themselves because
they allowed their emotions to interfere with their training and good
old fashioned common sense.
Next time, we’ll look at the regulations, or rather the lack thereof,
concerning the world’s most dangerous cargo and what needs to
be done to secure it. Until then, Dear Reader, I’ll leave you
with the words of one of the most reviled men in history. Joseph Stalin
once said, “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.”
Right now, the comparative death toll from Necro-Mortosis the world
over is a tragedy. But if we continue to handle these small, individual
tragedies with our hearts, we could all find ourselves part of the statistic.
Art
Related report:
Mortosis
incident in Hannover? Posted:
4th, May. 2008
'John
Doe' identified in Hannover attack Posted:
8th, May. 2008
Victim
released from hospital Posted:
10th, May. 2008
Hannover
attack - airport searched Posted:
17th, May. 2008
Airport
reopens - quarantine lifted Posted:
2nd, June. 2008
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Arthur Helms is a syndicated columnist who has dealt with a host of
social and political issues. His previous syndicated column, “Logic,
Please?” offered commentary on a host of world-view issues as
seen through the cold yet bright light of plain logic, demonstrated
fact and simple common sense.
While
the academic and political elite often dismissed his commentary as “too
simplistic” for our complicated times, his books of collected
columns and hundreds of national speaking engagements each year attest
to his connection to a readership yearning for simple answers to complex
issues. Helms recently ended his syndicated column to sign on exclusively
with Zombie World News, providing a fresh, logical,
plain-English view of the plague and to bring some common sense to what
many perceive to be a senseless situation.
Have an
opinion about this article? Respond to:
Dead Center mail
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