According to a Harvard School of Public Health poll from October of this year, “More than half of [U.S.] adults (52%) are concerned that there will be a large outbreak of Ebola inside the U.S. within the next 12 months.”
This statistic reflects a paranoia that remains unsupported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the CDC, “Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with the blood or body fluids of sick patients.”
But who am I to try to pull you away from your sweet, sweet hypochondria with science?
While we’re talking epidemics, why don’t we throw in tuberculosis, wild polio virus and the zombie apocalypse? Now that flu season is upon us, we can all indulge in a little pandemic panic as those familiar, yet, newly distressing symptoms set in.
But what to do with all that time sequestered in your hermetically sealed home as you recover from your disease or avoid those presumably spreading it? Netflix and Amazon Prime can certainly take the edge off, but what will you do for mental stimulation and human interaction?
This is where Pandemic, an award-winning board game from Z-Man Games, can help ease you back into society. What better way to conquer your fears of Ebola than a cooperative game that offers players the opportunity to fight not one but four diseases spreading around the world?