This article is from the public number: Bring Science Home (ID: steamforkids) , author: seven Jun
You know smallpox. Smallpox killed 300 million people around the world in the 20th century alone, and was not wiped out in the public domain until the 1980s.
But in fact the smallpox virus has not completely disappeared from the earth. In 1983, variola virus worldwide was either destroyed or sent to two WHO laboratories (WHO) : the United States United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta and (VECTOR) .
So, let ’s just leave the two top laboratories in custody of deadly viruses, wo n’t they flow out?
On July 1, 2014, six glass bottles labeled “Variola virus” in the 1950s were generously placed at the US National Institutes of Health in Maryland, USA. (NIH) . Later tests revealed that there was indeed a live smallpox virus.
2014 Maryland United StatesSmallpox virus found in the refrigerator of the National Institutes of Health. Image source: CDC
It was even more explosive in 2011. A mummified corpse was accidentally found in a New York cemetery with a 19th-century smallpox virus.
It is important to know that the United States has not compulsorily received smallpox vaccination since 1972, as is the case in many countries around the world. So in the event of an accident, how many people will suffer in the world?
In this anxiety, a 25-year-old strategy consultant named James Vaughan in London borrowed a parent’s computer and started designing a plague strategy game on weekends and leisure time.
In this game, players can design a certain pathogen, set the geographic location of the outbreak, the symptoms caused by the pathogen, and the way of transmission. With the expansion of the epidemic, players can gain more evolutionary scores, increase the infectious skill points and drug resistance of pathogens, and adapt to the environment to accelerate the spread of disease.
In the game, some countries can also conduct targeted research and development after discovering pathogens, and players must infect all humans before therapies appear.
If the player’s strategy is successful, the number of humans killed by the pathogen along the way will exceed the Spanish flu and smallpox, eventually leading to the collapse of governments around the world, the destruction of humans, and the overwhelming victory of the plague.
It seems that many people want to know whether the disease will destroy humans. In 2012, three days after the $ 5,000 game Plague Company went online, it became the number one paid game in the UK. After two days, it became the first place in the US list, as fast as the virus spread in the plague company. In 2014, it was also the best iPhone app sold in China.
In May 2019, Plague Company was downloaded more than 120 million times. Every time an outbreak occurs in the world, the number of downloads and online numbers of the plague company will soar. For example, because of this new crown epidemic, it will be a bit hot again in 2020, once rushing to the top of Apple’s paid mobile phone application list. Many netizens log in to their accounts again and want to see if they can predict the trend of the new crown virus.
In this epidemic, there are too many players who want to use games to predict reality. Vaughan had to issue an announcement stating that “the plague company is just a game, not a scientific model.”
Although Vaughan is humble, many scholars in the field of infectious diseases do not see it as a game.
A bug in World of Warcraft 15 years ago caused a plague that smashed the gaming world , and that electronic plague aroused the interest of many epidemiologists. Two scientist players also published a paper in the top issue of The Lancet while playing the game, preaching the value of the game for real infectious disease research.
The Plague Company has received the same attention.
2013 Vaughan speaks at the CDC
In 2013, the CDC invited Vaughan to speak in the past. Ali S. Khan, then CDC’s Assistant Medical Director, once praised the plague company: “This game has created a convincing world and brought the public’s attention to serious public health topics.”
Richard Hatchett, CEO of the
Vaughan said that the plague players include not only A Zhai, who is curious about human destiny, but also teachers and professors, who often use the plague company to explain the biological and economic principles of disease when teaching.
Human Anatomy and Physiology Course at Harvard University BIOS E-65C uses Plague Company as a teaching tool
For example, the human body anatomy and physiology course BIOS E-65C at Harvard University has established a course system that uses plague companies to teach students epidemiology.
In 2016, Benjamin Thompson, the Minister of Publicity of the British Microbiological Society, and Rosalind Eggo, an infectious disease scientist who specializes in infectious disease modeling at the University of London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also officially tested the plague company and carried out its scientific Fancy touting.
So, where is the science of the plague company?
In fact, Vaughan does not have a medical background, but in order to make the game authentic and credible, during the design of the first version of the game, he learned and practiced and read a lot of medical papers.
He said that when designing the game, he spent a lot of thoughts on the infection cycle, that is, the whole process of the infection of the pathogen. He read many papers related to the basic infection number R0, and then designed the current infection model.
Specifically, he expanded the epidemiological triangle pattern of disease most concerned by infectious disease researchers (the epidemiological triangle) effort.
Epidemiology Triangle Pathogenicity Model: Pathogen, Host, and Environment
The epidemiological triangle pathogenic pattern includes pathogens, hosts, and environment, which are the main determinants of disease transmission. Most of this Golden Triangle is reflected in the Plague Company.
In terms of pathogens, the pathogenicity of a pathogen refers to its pathogenic ability, which is mainly composed of virulence and invasiveness.
Virulence refers to the severity of the infection, which can be described in terms of morbidity and mortality. Invasiveness refers to the ability of pathogens to invade host tissues. For example, (Vibria cholera) is non-invasive, but Shigella can invade other tissues from the intestine.
The pathogen’s virulence and invasion are the first design focus of the game.In the game, you can set the pathogen to cause mild symptoms such as coughing, or pneumonia that invades the lungs to cause higher mortality, or to invade the brain to cause insomnia or nervous disorders, or even invade the whole body to cause severe organ failure such as multiple organ failure. You can also increase the resistance of the pathogen and prevent it from being eliminated by humans.
In addition, the disease symptoms in the game are also very elegant and real. For example, symptoms of hemorrhagic fever come from Ebola virus.
After infection with Ebola virus, symptoms of hemorrhagic fever will occur.
The pathogenicity of the pathogen not only affects the government’s awareness of the epidemic, but also affects its ability to spread. Similar to the new crown virus in reality, only pathogens with mild symptoms can inadvertently infect most people in the game.
The second part of the epidemiological triangle pathogenic pattern is the environment, including the encounter rate (Possibility of host exposure to pathogens) , Vectors (such as mosquitoes that spread malaria) , storage host (refers to people other than humans) End-hosts) , and the seasonality of pathogens, etc. In 2001, the National Science Research Council (NRC) pointed out that infectious diseases and their environment are the most worthy areas for research investment.
Environment is another focus of Plague’s design. In the game, you can set the type of vector, such as insects, birds, and various domestic animals.
You can also manipulate the encounter rate by setting the outbreak location, such as a densely populated area or a tropical area. To avoid seasonality, you can also make pathogens mutate without fear of cold or heat.
The host’s immune status, nutrition status, age, reproductive status, and comorbidities (such as basic diseases) are also important for spreading the Golden Triangle factor. But in this section, the old version of the plague company is not much involved.
After contacting the CDC in the United States, the Plague Company received a buff of brains from CDC scientists who added more authenticity to the pathogens and their spread.
Of course, there are some obvious differences between the plague company and reality.
In the game, there is a clear division between the outbreaks in Canada and the United States, which is unlikely in reality.
Introduced by Dr. Eggo of the University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine mentioned above, in the plague company, the spread of the disease has obvious borders, but infectious disease researchers know that even if the border is closed, there is still a way around the disease. Spread across the checkpoint.
In addition, natural immunity people or self-healing patients are not allowed in the game, which is unlikely in reality.
Although there are many fans, many netizens have criticized the plague company for being too murderous in the light of reality. After listening to the opinions of all parties, on March 23, the plague company released a new pre-market announcement of the salvation version, and the new version will soon be free for players.
The new version received the WHO (WHO) and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) . You can use means such as developing vaccines to stop the epidemic from spreading or even eradicate the plague.
The new version of the plague company has been supported by experts from WHO and other institutions.
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Image source: www.ndemiccreations.com/en/news/175-plague-inc-gives-a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars -to-fight-covid-19
In this version, in addition to developing vaccines, players can also manipulate governments, improve their medical systems, enforce national isolation, or stop the spread of the epidemic through triage, isolation, maintaining social distance, and closing public facilities. It is the same as the toolbox of governments in reality.
In the news announcement, Plague ’s father Vaughan said: “Eight years ago, I never expected that the world would really become like Plague, and I did n’t expect many players to use Plague. Real outbreak. “
Does a game hide the end of the plague in reality? Will it make more people understand the importance of home isolation and social distance, or even reverse the global infectious disease curve? The WHO, which targets 120 million users of the Plague Company, is in the next game. Let us wait and see.
Primary students who are disappointed that the human physiology course has been changed to a self-study course. Now you know, as long as you study hard at Harvard, you can play mobile phones in the human physiology course.
This article is from the public number: science home (ID: steamforkids) , Author: Seven Jun < / span>