Big question: how would Captain Trips look in this day and age? I mean the military tried to force the media into shielding the public from it for a long time. I sort of understand why....I mean what’s the point of causing mad hysteria and widespread panic and potentially more catastrophic chain reactions, but people have a right to know don’t they? Now I wonder what would happen now...I mean would viral (no pun intended) stories be chalked up to “fake news”?
How would he government handle the uncontrollable juggernaut of widespread information called social media? Is it even possible? Should they try?
We could look to the Ebola outbreaks for a good small example of an outbreak today. There's also the issue of quarantine. Early outbreaks could be quashed by a combination of quarantine and sheer luck. Not so much with today. Imagine trying to keep an entire city from going out?
Yeah, another great point. Without being too political...I think it'd be an exercise in futility to stop the truth from getting out in our day. But, like you said, people could shrug it off as fear mongering or fake news. Scary.
Yeah, in one sense social media could be helpful (here, I'm thinking of things like Amber Alerts and weather emergency messages that come through social media), but on the other, it could be an awful beast. Imagine trying to quarantine a city that's under the influence of a thousand social media conspiracy theories! Although, it would be interesting to see what
The Stand would look like as a novel written in 2018.