HBO’s series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us has spread like a virus. Every week, we watch as Joel and Ellie journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
We’re still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. So a lot of us are wondering the same thing: Should we be worried about a fungal pandemic, too?
But this is another creative liberty that the game and the show have taken. In real life, fungi like the zombie-ant parasite aren’t able to take on such big hosts as humans.
We’re simply too warm for parasitic fungi to thrive in let alone control completely. Fungi do infect humans but not in the way The Last of Us presented.
The short answer is no. Unless you’re a small insect you probably have nothing to worry about. But scientists aren’t ruling it out as an impossible event.