Deadly Super Fungus Spreading Is Making Me Think Of The First Scene From The Last Of Us

A deadly and highly drug resistant fungus is spreading at “an alarming rate” in long-term care hospitals and other health facilities caring for very sick people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday.

Fungal infections from the yeast strain known as Candida auris tripled nationally from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021, according to CDC data. Cases where a person carries the fungus but is not infected nearly quadrupled from 1,077 to 4,040 in the same time period. Preliminary data suggests the numbers have continued to rise.

Scientists believe the fungus is not a threat to healthy people whose immune systems can fight it off. But it poses a danger to medically fragile people, including nursing home patients on ventilators and cancer patients on chemotherapy. Between 30 to 70 percent of hospitalized people who develop bloodstream infections are estimated to die.

I am not trying to fearmonger but seeing this headline about a deadly fungus after watching the Last Of Us, which I think had one of the scariest scenes on television ever, is pretty daunting. I think if the world hadn't just gone through COVID-19, this scene wouldn't have hit as hard. The Walking Dead was a huge hit when it first came out, but I feel as though how the Last Of Us framed their zombie world in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in this insane first scene, will cause it to have a bigger cultural impact. 

Fungus is super powerful. It's in its own Kingdom, separate from plants and animals. It has positive powers we cannot even comprehend in regard to antibiotics; cordyceps actually controls insects' brains, has the power to make people trip balls, and might be the key to the country's mental health crisis. But on the flip side, yeast infections and jock itch are fungi, and they legitimately could possibly cause something like the Last of Us. I have a feeling this is a headline grab, and this fungus is more in the same vein as Asian Giant Murder Hornets, as opposed to Covid, and healthcare facilities are probably going to be using more antifungals now they know this is spreading. Its going to fine, right?...