#Pandemic #Epidemiology #PublicHealth #Disease #COVID #BoardGames #ZManGames #Science #SciComm
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Overview
In this month's episode we're covering "Pandemic" by Z-Man Games, where you play public health workers trying to save the world from four diseases at the same time. We're joined by Drs. Yann Boucher and Anna Szuecs to help us talk about what a pandemic is, how diseases spread, how COVID-19 compares to both historical pandemics and the ones in the game, whether masks and vaccinations actually work, and a host of other topics. So grab your mask, sit six feet apart, and join us to learn how you, too, can help save the world from microbial apocalypse!
Timestamps

00:00 - Introductions
00:55 - Fun science facts
04:57 - Game overview
09:47 - Real-world pandemics
13:52 - Epidemiology and spread of diseases
25:56 - Historical pandemics and lessons learned
30:52 - COVID-19 and mental health
33:36 - Future pandemics and disease surveillance
40:37 - Final grades

Links
Pandemic (Z-Man Games) - https://www.zmangames.com/en/games/pandemic/Climate change makes diseases worse (full article - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01426-1    (summary article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01435-0)Scientist interview from The Last of Us - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teuRjx7s_8kWhat if Fungi Win? (book) - https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53673/what-if-fungi-win
Full Transcript
Anna  0:00  Music.
Brian  0:06  Hello and welcome to the gaming with science podcast where we talk about the science behind some of your favorite games. Today
Jason  0:12  we'll be talking about pandemic by z Man games. All right, everyone, welcome back to gaming with science. This is Jason,
Brian  0:20  this is Brian.
Anna  0:21  This is Anna. 
Yann  0:22  and Yann. 
Jason  0:23  So not only do we have a special guest, we have two special guests this time today. Anna swetsu, actually, I don't know that I can pronounce your last name, so I'll just let you two introduce yourselves.
Anna  0:34  Okay, so I'm Doctor Anna Szuecs, my last name is Hungarian too. I'm a Swiss Hungarian doctor. I'm doing research in mental health currently at the National University of Singapore,
Yann  0:45  and I'm Yann Boucher. I'm a French Canadian originally, and I'm a microbiologist by training. I work on microbial evolution, infectious diseases, environmental surveillance and whatnot. 
Jason  0:55  And so you can probably guess why we have Anna and Jan on here is because this is a game about medicine and epidemiology and the spread of disease.  Before we jump into the game though, we like to do fun science facts. We always offer our guests the first opportunity something interesting. You've learned about science lately. You want to share?
Yann  1:10  Okay, I've got a scary one for you. Have you ever watched the TV show? The Last of Us? 
Jason  1:15  I've heard of it. I haven't watched it.
Brian  1:16   I know it exists. I know it's based on the video game. 
Yann  1:19  Yeah, yeah. So the first scene of the show is the best because they it's a fake interview, like in the 1960s of two microbiologists, one's a mycologist, you know, one's a virologist, and they're asking them what's most dangerous. And of course, the virologist says, Okay, it's the virus that's gonna kill us. There's gonna be a pandemic. And the other guy, that mycologist is not afraid of that at all, and he says it's gonna be the fungi. But the virologist says, not a fungi. They don't grow at body temperature. This only do skin infection. It's not a problem. The mycologist says, Yes, but what if the world was going to get a little warmer? What would happen? The fungi would evolve to be temperature tolerant, and then what happened? We lose this is the best scene You should watch it. I played in every every one of my classes. 
Jason  2:01  Okay, so basically, "the last of us" came about because climate change induced adaptation of parasi

Episode: https://www.gamingwithscience.net/e/s1e10-pandemic-epidemiology/

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