EXPLOVID-23
EXPLOVID-23 is a disease that first emerged in 3023. It is a zombie virus whose main symptoms are uncontrollable and explosive anger and a mild cough. It is a parody of the COVID-19 virus and its 2020 worldwide pandemic.
The first known cases were identified in the New New York sewers, causing a quarantine on all sewer mutants in the city. However, Turanga Leela unknowingly caught the disease while visiting her parents and spread it to the attendees of Back-to-Normal Fest 3023. This escalated to a worldwide pandemic, with Professor Farnsworth and Dr. Ogden Wernstrom competing to develop a vaccine to cure it.
Signs and symptoms
- Uncontrollable explosive anger
- Slight cough
- Sneezing
When symptoms are unclear, EXPLOVID-23 can be identified via an invasive nasal swab developed by Farnsworth, indicating the virus is most prominent in the patient's mucus. There is also a more contagious "Omicron variant" created by the virus mutating through Omicronians.
Transmission
EXPLOVID-23 is transmitted instantaneously, as the public began showing symptoms within minutes of being exposed to the infected Leela. Theories for exactly how it was transmitted varied. Richard Nixon claimed it spread via exposure to the infected's angry tirades, imploring the public to wear masks over their ears. However, it appears more likely to be airborne, as several characters (most prominently Fry, who frequently visited Leela but kept outside the Angry Dome where she was quarantined) were not infected despite being exposed to the harsh words of an EXPLOVID patient, and were instead infected by close contact with them.
Treatment
Originally, EXPLOVID-23 had no known cure; patients were simply isolated to avoid contaminating the healthy.
Scientists attempted to cure the vaccine through inoculation like the real-life COVID-19. However, the growing anti-science sentiment among the infected populace made vaccine distribution difficult. Hermes Conrad, LaBarbara Conrad, and Barbados Slim identified the virus as a zombie infection, and managed to cure the populace with voodoo magic that is very similar to vaccines. It is administered by injecting the cure into voodoo dolls.
Trivia
- EXPLOVID-23 mutating through Omicronians is a reference to the Omicron BA.5 variant variant of SARS-CoV-2, a mutation of COVID-19 that first emerged in 2021 and spreads more rapidly than the original virus.
- EXPLOVID-23 emerged immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic itself ended after nearly 1,000 years.