… researchers noted the similarities between the game and the real-world pandemics. Both had an immediate impact on dense urban areas, which limited the effectiveness of containment procedures in stopping the spread of disease, while air travel, like fast travel, allowed infections to spread across large parts of the world with ease. Lofgren compared the in-game “first responders”, many of whom contracted Corrupted Blood when they attempted to heal others, to healthcare workers that were overrun with COVID-19 patients and became infected themselves. While a direct analogue was not made to griefers [players who engage in bad faith multiplayer game tactics], meanwhile, Lofgren also acknowledged individuals who contracted the COVID-19 virus but chose not to quarantine, thus infecting others through negligence.
I remember that my server - Emerald Dream EU - avoided having an outbreak for quite a long time. We knew what the problem was, and somehow it took a fair few hours for the first idiot to come along and do it for the lulz, before that everyone agreed to not carry the Blood Plague outside.
Once it happened, it was only 5-6 hours to the downtime where they fixed the bug, but it essentially depopulated the major cities, anyways.