We’re Number One! Unfortunately.
JFK is totally the airport from where the next pandemic will spread.
Yay!!! We’re number one!!?!?!???
This is really troubling actually.
NPR reports that researchers at MIT “have developed a pretty nifty computer model to figure out the most influential airports in the early stages of an epidemic’s spread.”
Although JFK is not the most heavily trafficked airport—that delay-plagued honor goes to Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson International Airport—it is pretty, pretty busy and comes out on the top of a list of a whole host of other factors that could contribute to the spread of the PLAGUE THAT WILL DESTROY US ALL.
NPR explains that, “traffic does count in the computerized model. But traffic alone doesn’t predict the influence of an airport on a disease’s spread, the researchers say. The MIT model also takes into account layover times, the geographic location of airports and how networked they are with other airports.”
Only a few airports—including JFK, LAX, Honolulu International Airport, and Newark (oh crap, that’s close too!)—are classified as “super-spreaders.”
That’s “super-spreaders” as in these airports are super likely to spread an apocalyptic plague.
Cool!
However, the bright side of all this is that this information can be, according to MIT geoscientist Ruben Juanes, “used to allocate intervention strategies (like vaccinations) ahead of time.”
So that’s good.
Also good?
The really beautiful computer model over on YouTube that the guys at MIT came up with to demonstrate just exactly who viruses could spread from airport to airport, city to city.
So, watch it.
Enjoy.
This is the spread of humanity’s doom that you’re witnessing here.
And it’s so pretty!
