# What if the Crossed virus appeared in Nigeria? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829 "2025-07-14T01:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/1 "2025-07-14T01:12:49Z")
What if every person in Nigeria gets infected with the [Crossed virus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossed_(comics)) from the comic book Crossed? What happens next? How does the rest of the world respond? How soon can the Crossed be stopped and how much damage do they inflict in the meantime? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/2 "2025-07-14T01:21:10Z")
First you evaporated all the Ethiopians. Now you’re converting all the Nigerians into frothing homicidal maniacs. One could be forgiven for wondering what the heck you’re smokin’ these days? ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/3 "2025-07-14T01:49:21Z")
Wait until @Cmyers1980 discovers Sade’s song “Pearls”. _There is a woman in Somalia Scraping for pearls on the roadside There’s a force stronger than nature Keeps her will alive_ ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/4 "2025-07-14T01:51:03Z")
So Crossed is a prime example of the kind of thing i have no time for nowadays. I read about it on [slashfilm.com](http://slashfilm.com) or some such blog, sounds interesting, well written etc., but also apparently super super dark, and disturbing, even by the standards if The Walking Dead, etc. That’s a hard nope from me. There was a time when I’d have been all about that kind of thing, but right now i wouldn’t touch that with a barge pole. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/5 "2025-07-14T02:08:13Z")
I don’t care for the super gory. Anything. Not interested from the get go. Plus, I don’t like applying it to _real world_. That’s just grim. Yeah, it may be your literature. Maybe well written and illustrated. To each their own. IMO ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/6 "2025-07-14T02:55:21Z")
From what I’ve heard about it the Crossed virus was apocalyptic in its effects (never actually read the comics, for the reasons others have given), although it apparently had help in its initial spread. So Nigeria is likely a write-off, and possibly all of Africa. Most likely when the scale of the threat become obvious the US will use it as an excuse to nuke every major population center in Africa and use drones to hunt down the surviving populace over the next decades. The white nationalists won’t want to let the opportunity to justify “cleansing” the continent pass them by. ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/7 "2025-07-14T10:00:52Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > the Crossed virus was apocalyptic in its effects (never actually read the comics, for the reasons others have given), although it apparently had help in its initial spread. In the comic civilization ended so quickly because the virus appeared all over the world at once. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/8 "2025-07-14T12:11:57Z")
I think COVID showed everyone everywhere pretty conclusively that any highly communicable disease with a 3+ day incubation period will be all over the world before it becomes obvious that it exists at all. Humanity, even poor 3rd world humanity, does waaay too much constant moving around and mixing for the idea of geographic containment to work any more. The horses will be long out of the barn and scattered to the 4 winds before the barnkeepers notice the need to close doors. Oops. Individuals can isolate themselves briefly (scale of days or weeks). But that doesn’t scale out because a hefty fraction of the rest of those individuals’ peers must still be out working to keep civilization running to support the few in their splendid isolation. Societies cannot isolate. Therefore the world cannot. ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/9 "2025-07-15T11:20:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > that any highly communicable disease with a 3+ day incubation period will be all over the world before it becomes obvious that it exists at all. The difference is that in this scenario the Crossed instantly appear at once in a single location by the hundreds of millions and immediately start flooding into other countries for people to kill. It would be global news within hours. The only plausible way to stop it would be through a mind boggling amount of violence. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and one of the most powerful militaries so it would be extremely difficult and would necessitate Western intervention. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/10 "2025-07-15T15:56:08Z")
This comic is not too subtle about its message that the “virus”, people acting on their basest instincts, fucking each other over— that is just humanity, full stop. It is not supposed to be literally about zombies (is any zombie literature?) Nigeria is not leading the world in freedom, democracy, and happiness right now, but one cannot look at that in a vacuum and somehow judge Nigerian culture. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/11 "2025-07-15T16:04:44Z")
Yeah, I know I’m done. Not going to humour this escalation. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-crossed-virus-appeared-in-nigeria/1020829/12 "2025-07-15T16:11:53Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Nigeria is not leading the world in freedom, democracy, and happiness right now, but one cannot look at that in a vacuum “How would the world react if Nigeria was suddenly in a vacuum?”