As you may have heard, someone at Pitt accidentally let a lab monkey with a “select agent” (could be afflictions as severe as Ebola) out, then fired a researcher for reporting it. Noted Pitt fan Spilly pointed out the similarities to this and the typical “Patient Zero” concept of many horror films. My mind immediately went to the 28 Days Later franchise, which begins when a monkey with the rage virus is let out and then ends up getting most of the British Isles killed in a zombie-like apocalyptic event.
Pittsburgh, while once a post-apocalyptic wasteland, has rebounded quite well from the post-industrial haze that once enveloped it.