Simian Flu Pandemic

The **Simian Flu Pandemic**, also known as the **Simian Flu Crisis**, was a catastrophic flu outbreak that resulted in the near extinction of humanity and the evolution of all apes on Earth. The pandemic resulted from drug testing done at Gen-Sys Laboratories, a biotech company that sought to create a cure for Alzheimer's Disease.

## History

### Background

When Will Rodman tested the ALZ-112 on his father, his father seemed to have improved, but his dementia returned after his immune system fought off the ALZ-112. Meanwhile, Will managed to produce an entirely new cure called ALZ-113. This cure gave apes an even greater sense of intelligence, and due to this fact, Will attempted to test the 113 on his father, but Charles refused and died soon after. Will discovered that the 113 was recklessly being tested on the other chimps, ordered by his boss, Steven Jacobs who ignored Will's warnings about the risks he is taking. Robert Franklin did not have his mask secured properly when the scientists were testing the ALZ-113 on Koba. Franklin's next mistake was trying to get to Will, who wasn't home. Instead, Hunsiker came and Franklin sneezed on him. Agitated, Hunsiker told Franklin to leave. Later, Dottie, who was looking for Franklin, saw him dead on his bed by observing his bloodied hand. Franklin was externally bleeding even after he died.

### Spread

After Caesar and the apes escaped into the Muir Woods, Hunsiker, who had his finger bandaged, arrived to work at the airport. It was shown that Hunsiker was dripping blood from his nose, a symptom of the ALZ-113 virus. Refusing to forgo getting paid, Hunsiker proceeded to his job, which he spread the virus to passengers on the airplane he piloted, bound for France before traveling to Africa and then across Asia. Hunsiker eventually died, but not before the virus spread across the globe via international flight routes. Former New York mayor Michael Blommsberg gave a speech that if those with a fever or sore throat should stay home. Hospitals soon became flooded with patients and were all showing signs of the "Simian Flu", prompting the CDC and WHO to implement quarantine procedures.

The breakdown of law and order resulted in the intervention of FEMA and the National Guard, and the appearance of various domestic terrorist groups such as Alpha-Omega. Once the connection between the virus and the escaped evolved apes became public knowledge, rioting mobs broke into various zoos and began killing apes, monkeys, and all other superficially simian-like mammals like tarsiers and sloths.

Throughout the world, other countries fared no better in stopping the pandemic. Apart from San Francisco, major cities across the world saw widespread cases of the infection, rioting, and looting. Containment of the virus was futile and former U.S. President Barack Obama organized evacuation routes. In Belarus, an understaffed nuclear power plant went into meltdown while ethic conflicts broke out around the Middle East, Africa, and former Yugoslavia. In eastern China, the government went on a brutal crackdown of rebelling ethnic minorities. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, fighting broke out between North and South Kivu, dividing the region on ethnic and tribal grounds. In Egypt, Muslims began burning Christians alive while in India, a chemical spill in the Ganges resulted in some people seeing the burning river as a religious sign and immolating themselves in its waters.

Five years into the pandemic, half of the human population perished from the virus and societal collapse. By now, NATO and other organizations attempted to quell the anarchy. The CDC used apes in experiments to make antibodies. However, the CDC and U.S. Army handling the apes had a rift and progress ended as a result.

Martial law was declared in 28 nations, including the United States and Canada, followed by severe power outage. Later, all regular government functions were suspended indefinitely. Human civilization ultimately collapsed as civil unrest, anarchy, and economic collapse destroyed every country in the world.

### Aftermath

By the time the events of *Dawn of the Planet of the Apes* occur, ten years after the pandemic began, human civilization has long since collapsed. The human species as a whole has survived, but a large percentage of the global population is dead from either the Simian Flu or the resulting collapse of society. Small pockets of humans gathered in isolated survivor groups scattered across the globe, as they were genetically immune and started small isolated colonies in the ruins of cities or elsewhere. One such colony in San Francisco had a confrontation with a colony of genetically evolved apes.

Later, the Simian Flu evolved. Instead of killing humans, it makes them mute. The new strain may also make apes progressively more intelligent. At this point, the Simian Flu created a second civil war for the United States. Surviving humans became so desperate to contain the virus because they were heavily outnumbered by infected humans that they created a paramilitary faction to kill any infected humans who carried the virus. However, other humans resisted this with their own counteractive military, believing a medical solution could be found. However, both factions were likely wiped out as the apes escaped to an oasis.

## Speculation

Statistics taken from the promotional viral video (*"1/10 survives"*), suggest that 90% of the human population of the planet is dead. This would equate to approximately 700,086,200 survivors and 6,300,775,800 casualties. However, the numbers are given in the opening scene (*"1/500"*) imply only 14,001,724 living and 6,986,860,276 dead.

In *War of the Planet of the Apes,* the Colonel states the new mutated virus will make humanity more "feral" and "animalistic," implying that it decreases intelligence. However this is contradicted by Nova, who was infected with the virus but was still able to quickly learn sign language by observing other Apes.

## Plague Inc: Evolved

In the video game Plague Inc: Evolved, you are able to take control of a Simian Flu Virus (or game you can optionally rename it yourself). The 2 outcomes that can happen are: 1: The Virus can be eradicated but cause minor/major changes into human civilization. 2: You can take control of the earth with the Genetically enhanced apes.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Rise of the Planet of the Apes*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm - The Official Movie Prequel*