Perturbations in epidemiological models: When zombies attack, we can survive!

TL;DR

This paper explores how small changes in epidemiological models can lead to stability in zombie outbreak scenarios, indicating humans might survive despite initial instability predictions.

Contribution

It reveals that parameter perturbations can stabilize disease-free states in zombie models, a novel insight into outbreak dynamics and potential survival.

Findings

Parameter perturbations can stabilize disease-free equilibrium.

Linear instability does not necessarily imply outbreak inevitability.

Humans can survive zombie outbreaks under certain conditions.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the existence of stability-changing bifurcations in epidemiological models used to study the spread of zombiism through a human population. These bifurcations show that although linear instability of disease-free equilibria may exist in a model, perturbations of model parameters may result in stability. Thus, we show that humans can survive a zombie outbreak.