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Zombie attack plans from government are tongue-in-cheek, not actual plans | Fact check

Nate Trela   Paste BN

The claim: Post implies the CDC and Defense Department have sincere plans for 'zombie apocalypse'

An April 14 Facebook video shows a clip of a news report about a Defense Department document that appears to be a plan for combatting zombies. A narrator in the video elaborates further on the purported government initiative.

“So the CDC made a poster that said ‘Get a Kit. Make a Plan. Be Prepared,’” the narrator of the video says. “And they have the creepy, grave-looking fingers staring out of the window. So the CDC puts out this Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness kit in the year 2011, and they also have numbered it 6023.”

Some commenters took the post as evidence the government is anticipating a zombie takeover.

"It’s scary ... just thinking about it," one Facebook user wrote. "But it will happen in the future."

The video was shared more than 1,000 times in less than a month.

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Our rating: Missing context

While both the Defense Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have prepared materials about zombies, they were intended to be a light-hearted way to address more serious matters. The Defense document was a mock battle plan developed as a training exercise, and the CDC materials were to get people thinking about general emergency preparedness.

Government plans tried to use humor to get attention

The zombie plans for both agencies have been previously explained as attempts to humorously engage people on serious subjects.

The CDC campaign, called "Don't be a zombie; be prepared," began in 2011 as a way to get people thinking broadly about emergency preparedness. Much of it was based on the premise that the basics of emergency preparedness are the same for any real-life disaster.

“You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this," Paste BN quoted the agency saying in a 2011 blog post that is no longer active. "And hey, you may learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.”

The campaign called for people to prepare an emergency kit with essentials to last a few days in case of an emergency, among other things.

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The Defense Department document similarly was designed to hold attention while providing a framework that could be used in a real situation.

“The document is identified as a training tool used in an in-house training exercise where students learn about the basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario,” Navy Capt. Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, told CNN in 2014. “This document is not a U.S. Strategic Command plan.”

A disclaimer on the document states the plan is "fictitious" and was developed to train military students.

"Using this fictitious scenario avoided concerns over the use of classified information, it resolved sensitivity to using real-world nations or scenarios, and it better engaged the students," reads part of the disclaimer.

Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact and Check Your Fact also debunked this claim.

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