I know that we are early in the FTWD series which may answer some of these questions, but I am a bit confused on the mechanics of the virus and its transmission.
IIRC, a super flu virus wipes out millions. A peculiar aspect of this virus, after it kills the victim, it then acts upon an area of the brain which is responsible for motor coordination and base survival instincts like eating thereby seemingly reanimating the corpse. (I realize that this is unrealistic, but I can suspend disbelief for this).
We clearly see that this virus can be spread by a bite from an infected person (before or after death). Once the bite is received, the victim dies and then becomes reanimated, unless that particular area of the brain is destroyed.
Everyone agree so far? Okay, my recollection was that in seasons one and two of TWD those who died by other means not related to the virus did not reanimate since they were not infected. In season two the viewers got a shock when Shane was reanimated and Rick told the group that he had learned at the CDC that they were “all” infected with the virus, and therefore anyone who died would reanimate.
Okay. So that brings me to my questions. If they are all infected with the virus, why don’t they get sick and die? Is there a special property of the virus whereby some people are immune to its effects while living but it still acts upon them after death?
And it seems that in this stage of the disease in FTWD, those who died by means other than the killer flu should not reanimate. For example, the black drug dealer at the end of the pilot was shot in the chest. By the rules established early in TWD, he should not have reanimated, correct?
I don’t think there were any “rules” established before the reached the CDC. We just didn’t see anyone die who wasn’t also bitten. I’m guessing that the virus has a primary effect of killing many people (most people?) who get it, and then a secondary effect of reanimating 100% of the infected.
Maybe Rick’s daughter, born after the infection, is not infected. I don’t know, but that might introduce an interesting plot twist.
Maybe we didn’t see anyone died in seasons one or two from anything besides a bite.
Also, if everyone already has this virus, then why does a bite from a walker make them sick? Take Bob, for example. If he already has the virus, why did the walker bite infect him, make him sick and die?
It appears that the virus is lethal to some portion of the population. Like super influenza. Those that it isn’t lethal to don’t get sick, but the infection reanimates them after death.
The bite kills either by a huge load of the virus, or some other mechanism.
Well, in TWD, we didn’t get to SEE what happened. Rick gets shot when the world is peachy keen, and wakes up a month later… in a hospital where he’s the only living man left. He later discovers that the town is dead, aside from one other man and his son. Zombie Apocalypse, is done. We get ONE brief flashback, in which Shane and Lori witness the US military bombing Atlanta to try to terminate the infected areas. They failed.
The basic laws laid down in Romero’s Living Dead movies are:
If you die, you reanimate.
If you are bitten by a zombie, you have maybe three days before death and reanimation.
The time between somatic death and reanimation hovers around fifteen minutes, give or take.
The only way to kill a zombie is to destroy a substantial portion of its brain, the apparent center of its new “metabolism.” Either that, or utterly destroy the entire body. A severed head will stay animated, although it will deactivate the zombie’s body.
TWD seems to follow these rules; the TV show did go so far as to explain it as “a virus” that causes the effect. The virus seems to be airborne, and only affects humans. The comic went so far as to explain that if a limb is bitten, but then quickly amputated to remove the bitten area from the body, the victim can survive.
In last week’s FTWD, it remains unclear as to whether everyone is as yet affected by the virus. Some folks might still die, and stay dead. Remains to be seen.
I think there’s 2 diseases. There’s one disease which is 100% fatal and only gets transmitted through walker bites. Then there’s another disease which everyone is infected with, regardless of their bitee status, and that disease causes reanimation after death.
It seems logical (though logic and TWD aren’t bosom buddies) that the initial wave of infection killed those it could kill, but a certain number were immune. These immune folks still carry the virus, hence the discovery that “we’re all infected”. A walker bite, being a toxic, nasty thing, has the power to reanimate (heh) the virus, or perhaps kills via secondary infection.
I wouldn’t overthink it, though. The writers certainly haven’t.
I don’t find it that hard to understand (setting aside the whole ‘reanimation of dead bodies’ bit)…
It’s a virus that is easily transmittable, so that in a short period of time, "everyone"carries it. But in the vast majority of living people, the virus lies dormant, or is dealt with easily by their immune system…so many people are asymptomatic. The ones who have compromised immune systems, or for whatever reason have no natural resistance to the virus, quickly succumb to its effects.
And once a person dies, and their immune system stops functioning, the virus multiplies rapidly. And since it’s no longer being suppresses by the host, it takes full effect and reanimates the body.
So most reasonably healthy people can get by indefinitely with the virus sitting ineffective in their body, easily held at bay by their natural defenses…but once those natural defenses are no longer effective (due to grave sickness, injury, or death), the virus takes over.
Jenner, the CDC guy, says, “It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal…” He then allows that the wrath of god is possibility as well.
Why don’t regular wounds or sicknesses cause you to turn zombie but a scratch or a minor bite from a zombie can spell the end of you?
I am going to go with some sort of a parasite.
The parasite triggers only under certain conditions–one of which being exposure to members of it’s own kind who are in the next stage of development.
Get bit. Older zombisites get into you.
The presence of the older zombisites triggers the existing younger zombisites to start reproducing and developing.
This leads to death, which also triggers the immature zombisites’s development cycle.
With w/e contributing factors are necessary to keep the theory inline with the plot as it unfolds.
The virus has two effects - first is making you die, second is turning you to a zombie when you die.
A healthy person’s immune system suppresses the first effect, so healthy people biting each other will not cause them to die from the illness. After the person dies, though, the disease is no longer suppressed by the immune system, and a stronger/more virulent version of the disease is transferred via bite, enough to kill a healthy person.
Or, there may be two diseases. One creates zombies from dead people, the other infects zombies and gives them lethal bites. Living people are all infected with the first, and zombies are all infected with the other.
My [del]fanwank[/del] theory is that zombie bites are like Komodo Dragon bites: their saliva is full of nasty bacteria which will slow you down and (eventually) kill you by giving you septicaemia. Komodos hunt large prey by biting it and waiting for it to slow down and/or die from blood poisoning. They like their meat ripe.*
In other words, the reaction to zombie bites is unrelated to the zombie virus. Since everyone has the virus, once you die from the infection you turn into a zombie, same as you do from any other cause of death (except brain-destruction).
*This is the most popular Komodo theory, there are some experts who espouse alternate theories.
…of course we’re all putting more thought into this than the actual writers did, in the show they’re not going to be consistent because they don’t care. Zombie bites do whatever the writers currently want them to do, even if it contradicts something they did in an earlier episode.
That’s my theory, as well. I think something like it was mentioned in the Zombie Survival Manual. Furthermore, the “older” the zombie (relative to its death), the more bacteria it tends to have in its mouth… which explains why bites early on take longer to kill, but in later seasons it can kill in a very short time.
I’m way out of my depth here, and the folks who could give a resonable answer , have signed NDA’s with various govt’s. Since this is a hollywood virus, and not a real one, some might question the reason for NDA’s. However, its my view that any official discussion of said Hollywood contagion, may crossover into real life contagions, yada yada.
With that in mind, what I think the “virus” is, is actually not a virus, but a retrovirus. The rates of infection, are , in my mind, way to high. Almost 100 percent, and if the hollywood CDC dude was to believed, then it is 100 percent.
Somebody has weaponized X, and introduced it via a transmission method, and has achieved 100 percent delivery, but wait, thats not all. It’s binary, so we can’t have zeeks running around before we have a 100 percent infected population. So we need to introduce something that changes the RNA of the subject, so we need a common DNA fragment that everyone has, and thats probably going to be located in the Junk DNA pile, inside the helix.
The second part of the weapon, is the trigger or the combiner that starts the chain reaction. So the flu like symptom, are in effect, the RNA being adapted.
A truly excellent fanwank explanation is the Alomal-137 Epidemiology Case Study, which can be found and read online for free by simply googling “Alomal 137.”
It’s not canon in ANY universe, but it sure does a fine job of nailing down all the loose ends; it’s basically a short story written as an official CDC report of the disease causing a zombie apocalypse.
