Ok, so my boring take on this: I think the word privilege is overused. In my mind there is a basic level of human decency everyone should be treated with. If you are treated above and beyond that, you have some privilege. Situations like the one mentioned in this post (to my mind) don’t speak to a lack of privilege, but to the presence of oppression.
Also, from what I understand, we wouldn’t see it coming (as the decay would be spreading at the speed of light), and everything would be over before our senses could ever detect anything out of the ordinary.