A model presents a creation from the Gucci Fall-Winter 2022/2023 collection during Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, February 25, 2022. (Photo by Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters)

American model Kaia Gerber wears a creation as part of the Prada Fall/Winter 2022-2023 fashion collection, unveiled during the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, Thursday, February 24, 2022. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

English model Cara Delevingne attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” exhibition on Monday, May 2, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Photo)

A boy plays with a dragon-shaped puppet as he walks with his parent at Sydney CBD ahead of the Lunar New Year on February 09, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is celebrated around the world, and the Year of the Wood Dragon in 2024 is associated with growth, progress, and abundance, as wood represents vitality and creativity, while the dragon symbolizes success, intelligence, and honor. (Photo by Roni Bintang/Getty Images)

Displaced Palestinian children play with surgical rubber gloves in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 31, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Eyad Baba/AFP Photo)

“Unexpected humour”. The Dog and the Faucet, in Kolkata, India on January 2017. (Photo by Pau Buscató/The Guardian)

The civilised world lies on its knees, a sickness wracking its body. The affliction causes a necrotising of tissues so perfectly uniform in distribution that victims take on the appearance of corpses long before death occurs due to organ failure or secondary infections. ...

“There are over 680 documented species of the sac fungus genus Ophiocordyceps, and one of the best known of these is Ophiocordyceps sinensis, colloquially known as caterpillar fungus. The fungus is known in Tibetan as yartsa gunbu or yatsa gunbu. O. sinensis is known in the West as a medicinal mushroom and its use has a long history in Traditional Chinese medicine as well as Traditional Tibetan medicine. The highly valuable fungus-caterpillar combination is hand-collected and is used as an aphrodisiac and as a treatment for a variety of ailments from fatigue to cancer”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Nomads dig for Chinese caterpillar fungus from a mountain May 25, 2007 in Guide County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Nomads can earn about 2,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan (about U.S. $260 to $653 ) through their work during the fifty-day Chinese caterpillar fungus gathering season. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)