The spread of disease isn’t just fun for zombie movies anymore, oh weary traveller!

When it seems like the only epidemic we’re seeing on TV is the spread of fear of Ebola, rather than an actual discussion of the disease and its spread, it seems like a great opportunity to turn our attention towards actually understanding disease transmission through the simplification of the process in game form. Enter Vax.

Vax allows users to learn about: network effects; how to effectively use vaccination to break up network effects, even when you have vaccine limits; and lastly how to use a quarantine effectively to limit disease spread. It does all of this with a quick way to share your score on Facebook so that you can be like the creepy general in Outbreak that will go to any lengths to prevent disease spread, or, ya know, you could choose to show how effective vaccination can be without creating a totally Constitution-busting fear-mongering solution that really shows how crazy people can be. No judgement, whatever you want to do, it’s your call. I mean, that’s weird and everything if you go the insane route, so perhaps you should hug someone first and then play. Just sayin’.

Moving along, if you worry about how the current events can be brought to bear in your classroom in a way that informs debate instead of charging it, give Vax a try for your students. The worst that can come of it is that you waste half of your morning trying to beat the scores of your coworkers.