'Zombie Virus' Resurrected After 50,000 Years, Takes Over Twitter; Would Virus Start New Pandemic?

The hashtag "ZombieVirus" suddenly became viral on the social media platform Twitter on Tuesday, causing internet users left and right to be confused about the situation and what it actually means.

Some thought that it was regarding a film or a funny video that surfaced on the internet. However, it was actually French scientists successfully reviving a 48,500-year-old zombie virus that was buried under a frozen lake in Russia.

Revival of 'Zombie Virus'

Reports noted that the scientists' discovery caused fears of yet another pandemic after reviving the menacingly-named zombie virus. The viral study wrote that "the situation would be much more disastrous in the case of a plant, animal, or human diseases caused by the revival of an ancient unknown virus."

Despite the study initially causing widespread panic and raising concerns about another pandemic in the future, the situation soon turned into a series of memes being shared on Twitter poking fun at the discovery. Various posts comparing the zombie virus to the "endgame" went viral on the social media platform, as per India TV News.

The discovery made by scientists is of so-called zombie viruses from the Siberian permafrost and was made in order to investigate the awakening creatures. The oldest of the viruses is the Pandoravirus yedoma, which was nearly 50-millennia-old.

It was a record age for a discovered frozen virus that has returned to a form where it is capable of once again infecting other creatures. The discovery breaks the previous record of a 30,000-year-old virus that was identified in Siberia by the same team of scientists back in 2013.

According to WION News, the melting of the ice that the viruses were frozen in was due to climate change brought on by rapid global warming. There were 13 new diseases discovered in the Siberian permafrost.

Meme-Worthy Discovery

Scientists have long warned that the melting of permafrost as a result of global warming will worsen climate change. This is because it frees previously trapped greenhouse gasses, such as methane.

However, the effect that climate change has on long-dormant pathogens is still relatively a mystery among scientists. The team involved researchers from various countries, including France, Germany, and Russia. They said that the biological risk of reanimating the viruses that they studied was "totally negligible" due to the strains they targeted.

The team said that the viruses they discovered were only able to target those strains that could infect amoeba microbes. However, the researchers warned that the revival of a virus that has the capacity to infect humans or animals could prove to be a disastrous situation.

The situation comes as the world has suffered amid the coronavirus pandemic since 2020 and its continuous evolution and mutation since to avoid treatment and antibodies. While there have been more problematic situations in the history of our planet, the health crisis had hit the collective consciousness, driving billions of people worldwide into panic mode.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists, medical professionals, and even conspiracy theorists rushed to do their part. Every single development within the coronavirus world was met with overwhelming reactions, the Economic Times reported.

Tags

Pandemic, Twitter