I don't think that we'd be able to survive the rage virus. I think the first movie is actually quite accurate to what would happen if we were to have an outbreak. The virus is too strong, and too easily passed from person to person. The infected are too fast, too strong, and too blinded by rage to be stopped quickly. Obviously, there would be survivors, but these infected are not zombies. They are living people who have been infected with a virus that blinds out all other emotions other than pure rage. Honestly, I cringed when in the characters in the movie left their vehicle or home to go outside and find help or food. You would literally need to be covered from head to toe in protective gear to avoid getting fluid inside of you. One drop of blood, and you'd be one of them. The infected have no real place to go. If they see a light, they're going to follow it. If they hear a sound, they're going to run towards it. So all in all, one wrong move, one sound, and you could be attacked. For viruses such as the bird flu and the swine flu, the government can easily contain that because these people are already weak and tired and will not be going anywhere far. The rage virus, however, infects people and turns them into crazed running machines. You can't contain everyone who is infected unless the government locks them in a cage and kills them, and by then they may have already escaped and attacked others. It just seems like the world wouldn't know how to handle such a bad situation.
Well, initially the quarantine was successful, as the infection did not spread to Europe in the first movie.
But I think in the second movie, many stupid mistakes were committed that allowed the infection to spread like wildfire again.
I think that in such a hypothetical scenario, the government would probably be taken aback and struggle to fight it, but I think it would be capable of seizing control of the situation after a while. At least I'm hoping to God that the government has already an anti-zombie apocalypse plan ready.
Though admittedly, with an incubation period of 30 seconds before the attack comes, it'd be pretty wild. Should such a thing ever happen in real life, I'd assume the incubation period would be longer for such a virus, at least a day....but I guess that would lead to the infection of millions and then the random showing up of infected.
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