The name of my disease for my first plague was called Adversity created on October 19, 2015. I started my plague in Central Africa. As soon as I started accumulating DNA points I started with water transmission and later insect transmission. I went with heat resistance and started with the symptoms of insomnia and anemia. By 12/9/15 I had already infected 103 people. By the time I could see the infection spreading and reading the news scroll on top of the screen I lost track of the 1,000,000 count and by 2/3/16 I had already infected 19,847,713 people. On 3/30/16 Central Africa started to work on a cure – that’s when I started getting worried. In May 2016, Turkey, New Guinea, and India, among others, started working on their cure research. I evolved my plague by activating the air transmission and drug resistance ability. By 11/6/16, Russia, China, and the U.S.A. were infected while cure research reached 25%. On 12/2/16, the first death occurred in Afghanistan and at the same time about 5 people were infected in Greenland at this point. I think my first death took awhile, roughly a little over a year because I waited longer to evolve the more lethal symptoms of my plague. On 12/10/16 a friendly notice of a global research was underway in developing a cure for Adversity. On 2/13/17 there were no more healthy people in the world. On 3/1/17, cure development reached 75% and this was when I think I used all my DNA points to reach the second levels of transmissions, symptoms and abilities. 26 days later 92% of the cure was complete. On 4/11/17 the cure came to a 100% completion and finally on 5/9/17 Adversity was eradicated in 579 days and the human race was saved. 

The name of my second plague was called Lucky K created on October 19, 2015. After being eradicated by plague number one, I raised the ante for Lucky K. Lucky K began in Australia. It infected 103 people by 12/3/15. From what I noticed, both my plagues have a relatively slow start. With Lucky K I noticed I did not see a lot of red areas infected and it also took awhile for it to spread. I started with the typical water transmission and started with the rash and sweating symptoms, which in my opinion paves the way for easier infection since Australia is a hot climate. By 2/26/16 my plague spread to China, Argentina and South Africa and on 3/3/16 I reached the 1,000,000 mark of infecting the world. By 4/7/16 I started seeing more red-targeted places. On 6/9/16, Australia started to work on a cure. By 7/18/16, the first recorded death was in India. However by 9/10/16, only 10 people were infected in Greenland. By 10/6/16 there was 25% cure development. By this time, I already upgraded as much as I could. By this point, the map was all infected, and on 12/7/16 no healthy person was left in the world. I just kept on waiting for what was to come afterwards and I only had 5 DNA points remaining. On 1/16/17 my plague, Lucky K, destroyed the human race despite having a 33% cure in the works. Then a glimmer of “hope” occurred on 2/12/17 stating that my Lucky K plague had mutated and the scientists introduced synthetic genes in hopes of finding a cure. However, after this date Lucky K was victorious and killed the human race in 484 days, including Greenland. 

As the creator of Adversity, I was somewhat saddened my plague did not entirely eradicate the human race. Since Adversity started in a poor nation I thought it would actually be more infectious and lethal than Lucky K. I also found it a bit odd that although my infestation with Lucky K did not start out rapidly, I figured it would be like Adversity. Considering that starting at any wealthy nation, there was a bit of a lag in spreading and I thought they might be more able to find a cure. Playing this game made me realize how fast a plague can be transmitted in just a matter of days. Even if there was a cure to be found, a lot of people may already be infected or have already died. We need to take care of ourselves and be ready and mindful of our surroundings just in case a plague does happen because this is seriously devastating and frightening.

The name I have chose was GBT. The poor nation  chose was Peru as a country that don’t have any airport and port in the game, it was very difficult to get the plague spread out worldwide. At first I had very few infected ones. while I activated the bird and insect and air level 1, it totally got faster  among population. Brazil was the most affected, as the people was infected but not killed it helped me out to spread to Australia and Europe. while the plague was attacking every part of the world. Argentina was the first to work for a cure and USA was the first to sent aid units to fight the disease. I was almost to destroy the world but unfortunately I couldn’t destroy humanity because I could not reach Iceland and some island started closing ports to avoid the disease getting into those countries.

The second nation I have chosen was Spain as a wealthy nation I think it was easier because it had an airport and harbor that I could get the disease spread easily and Spain as being part of Europe that are more developed countries connected so they are infected faster and people are being killing continually. So what I did is I put I activated the rodent 1 air 1 and water 1 . These kind of transmissions would help me to get a developed disease and get a strong infectivity around the developed nations around. Once I noticed that some countries like Russia was working on a cure. I tried to protect my plague by applying drug resistance and bacterial resilience to the highest level. I could also reach up to coma as symptoms to increase my rate of mortality. Once again, I could exterminate the human population I could made a hard damage and the same problem as the first tried, I could get to some island like Australia and Japan.

This game is very interesting. I took me a time what would happen if a disease sparks right know, how we would be able to manage and in what circumstance we would be if it is real. I think we need to take conscious of our actions. I took my interest to research if there is a plague around on the world and definitely there is one called Black plague that there is no cure right know and USA is working  on it.

I am familiar with Plague, I have been a casual player for over two years. I have always been infatuated with how diseases are transmitted and how fast they can spread and become an epidemic. This game is perfect way to “kill the World”

My first game my disease was called “VeggiePox” so named because I wanted a pandemic that didn’t have to do with wild stock and could easily affect any area in the world. So I started in Pakistan and chose water and air as the initial mode of transmission. I made it more susceptible to warm climates and the symptoms started out as vomiting and sweating.

How long did it take to infect 100 people? 35 days approx.

1 million? 80 days approx.

First death occurred at 259 days approx.

Veggie Pox destroyed the human race in 605 days, Greenland was conquered pretty fast. In my experience playing the game Greenland is always the hardest to defeat, I believe it has to do with the cold arid climate and the population being sparsely dispersed. In the first game cure was only 33% completed, I believe this was because of the area where the epidemic was started and the countries surrounding it. How my disease moved from country to country dictated how I evolved the disease itself and what kind of aid would be contributed to finding a cure.

The second game had a very different outcome. This time my disease  was called Plgbrngr and started in Canada. This time my strategy was to develop the disease slowly, because it is a more developed country I did not want to hit them strong and start development of a cure early. None the less that did not keep my disease from being eradicated.

How long did it take to infect 100 people? 60 days approx.

1 million? 100 days approx

First death was almost a year after initial infection. 

Plgbrngr did not destroy the human race it was eradicated at 781 days. It did take a while for the epidemic to be cured I believe I had over 1.5 billion death’s but I had a few countries in warmer climates that were slow to spread the infection. I don’t believe it was an issue with the climate because I had evolved the climate resistance, it may have been the mode of transmission. I had more of a rodent and air transmission, once transportation was halted in different parts of the world It killed the transmission and how lethal disease.

When a country is more developed it has the resources to shut boarders and develop cure more easily. I like to read the little pop ups throughout the game, it helps learn how the countries are learning and adapting to the disease itself it helps you mold it and make it more effective. In the first game because it was a third world country it was harder to get the word out about the pandemic before it infected the whole world. In the second game because a large country with a large amount of travel coming in and out, it was dealt with swiftly and effectively. Plague is a wonderful game to learn how disease works and would be perfect as a learning tool in microbiology and even pathophysiology. My ultimate goal is to become an epidemiologist at the CDC and learn about diseases in real life. That would be my dream job!

First Game

Bacteria Name: Pathogen

Origin: India

Start Date: October 16, 2015

100 People Infected: December 1, 2015 (around 1.5 months)

1,000,000 People Infected: February 2016 (around 4 months)

First Death: August 8, 2016 in East Africa (around 10 months)

Destroyed Human Race: Yes

For my first game, I chose India because it is a rural country with a large population. When I first started playing, I tried earning as much DNA points as possible so I can evolve the transmission traits especially water, air and mosquito. I believed that these particular  traits can help spread the disease faster to other countries through plane and ship transmission. As I gained more points, I distributed them evenly between the symptoms and abilities. I tried making the symptoms as worse as possible so that the bacteria can infect more people. I made sure to invest most of my points in Drug Resistance so that a cure can never be completed. I used any extra points I had to max out the rest of the traits. I believed that because I invested my DNA points on Drug Resistance early in the game, I was able to stop the cure from being made which caused the plague to destroy the entire human race. However, I wasn’t able to conquer Greenland.

2nd Game 

Bacteria Name: Bacillus

Origin: USA

Start Date: October 16, 2015

100 People Infected: January 3, 2016 (around 2.5 months)

1,000,000 People Infected: April 26, 2016 (around 6 months)

First Death: March 3, 2016 (around 4.5 months)

Destroyed Human Race: Yes

Conquered Greenland: Yes

Since I was able to destroy the human race in my first game, I played the second game using the same tactics. I made sure to distribute my DNA points evenly among the three categories especially Drug Resistance. This time it definitely took longer for the bacteria to spread and to infect people but that was expected since the USA is a more wealthy nation. Surprisingly, it took longer for the first death to occur when I started out in India than when I started out in the USA. I thought it would be the opposite since India is a poor country compared to the USA. Another thing that I thought was interesting was that after I maxed out Drug Resistance in my first game, the game ended instantly when the cure dropped down to 63%. However, when I maxed out Drug Resistance in my second game, the cure drop down to 72% and the game was still running for a very long time. During this time, all the countries turned brown on the map and there announcements for every country that was fallen. After 15+ announcements, the game finally ended.

The game definitely helped me understand pandemic transmission better. I was able to see visually how pandemics spread from country to country and how certain transmission and/or symptom traits aided the process. It was a very fun experience creating the bacteria and spreading it all over the world.

Bacteria Name: Meow

Start date: October 14, 2015

Origin: Central Africa

100 people infected: around 47 days

1,000,000 people infected: around 2 months

First death: December 12, 2016 in East Africa

Destroyed human race?: No

If not how long: Cure research began in central Africa 5 months later. Cured at 1557 days

In the first game I concentrated on evolving the abilities of the bacteria Meow. The abilities of Meow were maxed out. I believed that maxing out these abilities will prevent researchers from making a cure because once there is a cure it is basically game over. My next area of concentration was the symptoms. I worked on making the symptoms as severe as I could with the amount of DNA points that I could obtain. By making the symptoms severe I thought that I could wipe out as many people and as fast as I could. As the game progresses it becomes harder to get DNA points because the game has reached a point of equilibrium. The cure research is ongoing and the amount of people dying and becoming infected is stable. This first game took quite some time to end. Ultimately a cure was made and Meow was eradicated. One of the main reasons I noticed was because I was unable to infect Greenland. All the methods of transmission to Greenland were shut down before I could get them infected. Therefore the cure was ongoing throughout the game. It was only a matter of time before the cure was made and the game was over.

Bacteria Name: Meow 2

Start date: October 14, 2015

Origin: U.S.A.

100 people infected: around 60 days

1,000,000 people infected: around 4 months

First death: around 6 months

Destroyed human race?: Yes

Meow 2 eliminated all of human race in 544 days. I took on a different approach for Meow 2. Because I was unable to infect Greenland in the previous game I concentrated on leveling up the transmission abilities for Meow 2 earlier on in the game. By doing so I was able to infect the entire world before the airports and docks shut down. At the same time, cure research began much earlier for Meow 2. Therefore, I evolved the abilities in Meow 2 as well to prevent quick progress in finding a cure. This method allowed me to counteract the containment and cure for Meow 2. The infection rate for Meow 2 was slower at first compared to Meow, but eventually picked up and multiplied rapidly. I believe that in order for a disease to spread the method of transmission is crucial to how diseases become a pandemic. In healthcare, one of the most important things we learn is all the preventative measures against transmission of diseases. By having a comparison of Meow vs. Meow 2, I can see that even if the disease is deadly, it won’t cause as much damage as long as it is contained. Meow 2 was not contained and eliminated the human race. Knowing the method in which bacteria is transmitted is important in preventing the spread of a disease.

After seeing the collection of photographs from Carrie Mae Weems’ series, “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried,” I saw how she used appropriation to transform the photos into a whole new meaning. When J.T. Zealy took these photos, it was for a scientific purpose, to prove the theory of racial inferiority of Africans. Weems appropriated the photos by applying a red filter over the original images and adding text on top. From watching the video, I learned that she placed circular mats on the prints to put more focus on the men and women in the photos. She organized the photos in a timeline format to convey a message that blacks were treated as lowly beings and dehumanized over the time. I believe she added the text to create more awareness of the photos’ original intention which will then give the subjects the level of dignity and respect that they never received. Without the text, the audience may not know the stories behind each photo and the level of mistreatment these people received. When I first saw these photos and read the texts, I felt saddened by the way these people were treated. Some of them were forced to take semi-nude photographs and were labeled as a subject in a scientific experiment. Their eyes show how uncomfortable they must have felt.  I think that Weems’ photos are very successful in a way that it reveals the level of racism in America and that she gives the subjects a voice that they never had.

In Carrie Mae Weems’ series, “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried,” Weems uses appropriation to modify the images taken by J.T. Zealy. Having seen one of the photographs of J.T. Zealy’s titled Jack from the 1850’s, I had an idea where this set of artwork was leaning towards. It portrays sadness, darkness, helplessness and focuses around a ‘scientific subject’, which happened to be slaves during that era. In Weems’ series, her appropriation shows more than just a picture but rather instills a story behind it. She changes the color scheme from black and white to a deep red that makes the images look more powerful. Her use of the color red deeply captures the attention of the audience. As far as being able to read the text while observing the image, I feel that it can be done. The text serves to enhance the experience and gives the viewer something to think about while looking at the work. Without the text, the images may seem mysterious but may also give the viewer slightly more freedom to ponder what the subject may have been feeling when the image was taken. It may be more open to differing opinions without the text. However, with the knowledge that this took place in the 1800’s, we cannot overlook the discrimination and racism that happened during this time. I think Weems’ photographic project went outside the box and captured what I feel these subjects in the picture are feeling. She delivers short powerful messages with a bit of empowerment.

The image I chose was of a woman holding a young boy receiving an injection. The people in the picture look like they are at home in their living room. The family doctor has stopped by to give the child the shot. The young boy is sitting on it’s mother’s lap while the doctor inoculates the child. Two other children look on at the doctor. A boy looks on while holding the back of the doctor’s chair. A girl looks on from the other side of the doctor and holds a basket behind her back. The artist uses tenebroso in this picture. The background surrounding the people is dark while a strong light shines in on this family and doctor. You can’t make out the surrounding objects in the far background. To the side of the people is a child’s crib. I chose this picture because vaccinations happen to be a very important part of living. In earlier times, things were done differently. Instead of people traveling to a doctor’s office to receive care, doctor’s would travel to their patient’s home. In this instance, the doctor has traveled to this family’s home. He could be there to administer medication to the child because he was sick or they were trying to prevent sickness. The children and mother all look on in awe.