Kevin's Watch

Zarathustra wrote:Since they're all infected already, why does a bite turn one into a zombie? You have an infection. It is triggered when you die (as if that makes sense). It's also triggered by bites ... but not any bite, rather a bite from a zombie. But how is a zombie's bite any different from a normal bite, if everyone carries the "disease"? Is it like ebola, where you can only get sick from someone who already shows symptoms?

I'm guessing it's like a 2-part epoxy.

Zarathustra wrote:Is it something like you can't catch "the zombies" on a bus, but you can transmit "the zombies" on a bus? OMG, half the group just left on a bus!!

Everyone knows you can't catch The Zombies on a bus... it is just like ebola. Didn't TheFallen just win a nobel prize for this?

I think it's two separate things. The Zombie bite, by itself, doesn't turn you, it merely kills you. Then, once you're dead, the infection everyone carries causes you to reanimate. If it was the Zombie bite that turned you, then people who die of other causes wouldn't be reanimating.

Yes, I think so. Zombie bites seem to have some sort of fatal poison, which is separate from the brain re-animation effect that we saw at the Atlanta CDC.

Still, we'll probably never know if Bob was tainted meat. Because there won't be any more cannibalism on this show. Nope. No more. Thank you.

Zombie bites must be komodo dragon bites.

It's all magic anyway, but if I was going to propose a (pseudo-)scientific explanation I would say:

A government agency or government-funded terrorist organization released a retrovirus (maybe something based off a common virus like HPV, allowing a large number of people to become carriers without being detected). This retrovirus recodes human DNA to include an inactive genotype. The genotype is activated by either the presence of the zombie toxin (which unlike the retrovirus, is only transmitted via direct contact between the producing mucosal membranes and blood, being 100% virulent and 100% unstable outside of a living host) or the complete shutdown of the nervous system. Once activated, the genes begin producing the zombie toxin, let's say by hijacking cytotoxic t-cells much the way AIDS hijacks helper t-cells. The toxin in turn starts shutting down and then taking over the nervous system.

Basically, it's kind of the opposite of a cryptococcus infection in someone with AIDS. The cryptococcus fungus is everwhere, but it can only take over when the immune system is weakened. And a fungus would tie in with that zombie ant fungus. It would be pretty easy to detect a fungal infection before everyone in the world got it, though, so it'd have to be the toxin.

I believe the show, and the comic, indicated it was indeed a virus (not a fungus).

I did find this:

• "The rule is WHATEVER it is that causes the zombies, is something everyone already has. If you stub your toe, get an infection and die, you turn into a zombie, UNLESS your brain is damaged. If someone shoots you in the head and you die, you're dead. A zombie bite kills you because of infection, or blood loss, not because of the zombie 'virus.'"
  —Robert Kirkman

... which doesn't explain what the 'infection' actually is. But infections are bacterial or viral.

Is it sufficient to just say that an animated corpse, which has been decomposing to some degree for days or weeks or months, probably has enough toxic but totally ordinary disease in it that it would kill you if it got into your blood?

A zombie bite kills you because of infection, or blood loss, not because of the zombie 'virus.'"
—Robert Kirkman

Wait a minute, so everyone who got a zombie bite would have lived if they'd just got some Neosporin and a bandage?? Why they hell didn't anyone think of trying that???

If that's true, then the black guy certainly wasn't "tainted meat." He should have tried some first aid, rather than giving up. Why did everyone just watch him die, instead of cleaning the freakin' wound??? They didn't even try!

We did see Herschel get his foot chopped off (or was it a hand?), so they know you can treat zombie bites somewhat. In all this time, why haven't they combined the knowledge that they already carry the infection with how Herschel was saved, and come to the conclusion that they should ALWAYS try first aid, you know, first? Jesus, that's a lot of unnecessary zombies.

Zarathustra wrote:

A zombie bite kills you because of infection, or blood loss, not because of the zombie 'virus.'"
—Robert Kirkman

Wait a minute, so everyone who got a zombie bite would have lived if they'd just got some Neosporin and a bandage?? Why they hell didn't anyone think of trying that???

If that's true, then the black guy certainly wasn't "tainted meat." He should have tried some first aid, rather than giving up. Why did everyone just watch him die, instead of cleaning the freakin' wound??? They didn't even try!

We did see Herschel get his foot chopped off (or was it a hand?), so they know you can treat zombie bites somewhat. In all this time, why haven't they combined the knowledge that they already carry the infection with how Herschel was saved, and come to the conclusion that they should ALWAYS try first aid, you know, first? Jesus, that's a lot of unnecessary zombies.

A Zombie Mouth is a cesspool of filth and disease, you get that stuff in your bloodstream, and you're toast.

As you noted, if you got bit on an extremity, such as Herschel's lower leg, you can cut off the extremity, before the filth has the opportunity to flow through the blood vessels/veins, past the severing point. A bite on the torso, would be a lot tougher to cut out while staying in front of the blood flow, you can't really cut off the shoulder or your ribs like you can a leg, finger, hand, arm... (Especially since Bob didn't even mention it, until hours after being bit)

I do wonder about a transfusion, with "Clean Blood"( old stored blood that is not infected with the reanimation virus), if that might eventually be a useful weapon against the epidemic? I've not seen anything that I can remember which eliminates the possibility

in 28 Days Later don't they give the main character a blood transfusion to cure him?

There's nothing inside a corpse's mouth that isn't inside a living person's mouth. Even at a much higher concentration, there's no way a bite would have a 100% mortality rate.

I agree, Syl. At the very least, it doesn't explain not trying. They have antibiotics.

Oh well, it's fiction. It just seems purposely misleading fiction.

Yeah, I love zombie films and so, but it requires suspension of disbelief to say the least. Beside, everyone knows it was radiation from a space probe returning from venus that exploded in the earths atmosphere that caused the zombie revolution.

If a retrovirus can animate dead tissue, and give it a tropism for noise and flesh, it can certainly scare up some poison in the saliva -- that's probably the least unbelievable thing about it, no? Kirkman's the author, so if he says it's infection, then it's infection. But he hasn't exactly ruled out infection due to something that zombie metabolism might produce.

The walkers have the bacteria, or whatever, that kills. It also reanimates. It takes a lot for it to do either. The amount from a bite is enough.

The bacteria is also spreading. Walkers touch people, they touch things that people then touch, they deteriorate, etc. Eventually, the concentration builds in people to the point that they reanimate.

Ananda wrote:Yeah, I love zombie films and so, but it requires suspension of disbelief to say the least. Beside, everyone knows it was radiation from a space probe returning from venus that exploded in the earths atmosphere that caused the zombie revolution.

actually...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWGtZ9Oqcwc

language alert...

[Syl] wrote:There's nothing inside a corpse's mouth that isn't inside a living person's mouth.

Of course there is. I don't allow worms in my mouth.

why the hell did they split up again?

How is Eugene so well nourished, that's what I wonder about...

sgt.null wrote:

Ananda wrote:Yeah, I love zombie films and so, but it requires suspension of disbelief to say the least. Beside, everyone knows it was radiation from a space probe returning from venus that exploded in the earths atmosphere that caused the zombie revolution.

actually...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWGtZ9Oqcwc

language alert...

video link not available in my country. But, my explanation is from Night of the living dead and is just tongue in cheek.