If everyone is infected, why do zombie bites kill you?
This is a very common question, but i think its time we had a serious discussion about it
If everyone is in fact, already infected with the virus that causes reanimation, then what is it about a zombie's bite that kills you? is it the fact their flesh is so rotten that you get a bad bacteria infection and die? because antibiotics can fix that easily.
So if its not an infection, what is it? Surely there's no magical reason why you die(TWD doesn't deal in wizardry as far as i know).
I remember someone suggesting they give you a virus that attacks your immune system similar to a fast acting version of AIDS independent of the reanimation, but i think the writers said that it had nothing to do with a virus or something to that effect.
If everyone is in fact, already infected with the virus that causes reanimation, then what is it about a zombie's bite that kills you? is it the fact their flesh is so rotten that you get a bad bacteria infection and die? because antibiotics can fix that easily.
So if its not an infection, what is it? Surely there's no magical reason why you die(TWD doesn't deal in wizardry as far as i know).
I remember someone suggesting they give you a virus that attacks your immune system similar to a fast acting version of AIDS independent of the reanimation, but i think the writers said that it had nothing to do with a virus or something to that effect.
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Comments
*Cough* Brie *Cough*
brie's wolverine obviously
if its just a virus(super duper bug : p) then eventually a vaccine will be found, as well as some people just possessing natural immunity, and idk if TWD is going to take that route at all
As long as all the scientists are kept alive, and have things to test and such (without any accidents), then spend years finding something. Plus there would need to be a way/someone to distribute it
But thinking of how many people die in a day, who will turn regardless of being bit or not (before people realize they have to destroy the brain of the dead), and they would bite anyone near, medication would probably come too late
The best thing would be to not get bit, not really going to take a chance on being naturally immune
This is just a thought, okay? But let's say that the zombie 'virus' comes in two forms, a dormant, and a active form, okay? So, what happens when the infections first start?
I don't know how the infections first began, but if it was something like the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta having a sample from either some arcane source (like a rare virus from Africa, or China [See Outbreak movie, or trailers for World War Z] or some government germ warfare project [28 days movie?]) Which starts everything falling apart, then if there are two forms, the initial infection implies that the virus and it catalyst were brought together and then accidentally or purposely released.
So the world goes to heck in a hand basket.
Now come up to the present with our Telltale characters, where Lee and company find out that no matter how you die, that you 'turn'. So what we may have, since the virus is released, is a return to 'dormant' and 'active' forms, where the virus that is airborne has already infected most of us. It might be cool to assume that there are some, perhaps in underground bunkers, or perhaps in remote areas where prevailing winds were detoured, are still 'uninfected'. But at this point that is pure conjecture for a story arc that Telltale or Robert Kirkman may decide to never go into.
But for explanation purposes, let us assume that the reason we 'suddenly' succumb when bitten, when we are already infected is that, the dormant virus that is in most people already is 'triggered' when a zombie bite or scratch transfers the 'active' portion of the virus to the survivor.
Without the 'active' portion of the virus, the 'dormant' form can exist for seemingly years? Or a lifetime without the carrier showing evidence of the disease.
But this seems to me, that the 'carrier' portion of the virus could carry on, to children, if they were conceived after the apocalypse started, by the parents transferring it to the child. Or It may even prove to transfer to an uninfected survivor, child or not, if the virus is continually 'stirred up', but that may be a completely 'local' phenomenon, where lets say you came from a bank vault in a small town and survived the initial exposure, and then escaped town after most of the zombies had decayed to the point of no longer functioning, or even of being infectious any longer.
Which means moving into areas where zombies were still active and functional could expose you to the carrier portion of the virus, and a bite/scratch could 'activate' it.
But such a theory also means that if survivors could wait long enough, perhaps several months? Or a year? That the infected populations would have decayed and dried out [no more moist viable tissue remaining] then the 'carrier' portion of the virus could die. Perhaps meaning that if there were survivors that came into an area in containment suits with their own oxygen supply and were bit, or scratched, that they may not have been exposed to the underlaying 'carrier' portion of the virus first, so the bite might cause a nasty infection, but not a zombifying infection that would turn the survivor into a zombie.
Which might actually be cool, eh?
Of course this is only my 'theory', and Kirkman and Telltale have their own ideas, so maybe it will never be this way at all, but if I were writing a book, it might be cool to think of the virus working like this because it makes things hit and miss and gives people both dispair, but also hope of the virus dying out.
-Teal
//
Theory on How The Zombie Virus Accelerates Infection, Even When The Infection Is Already Prevalent -
This is just a thought, okay? But let's say that the zombie 'virus' comes in two forms, a dormant, and a active form, okay? So, what happens when the infections first start?
I don't know how the infections first began, but if it was something like the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta having a sample from either some arcane source (like a rare virus from Africa, or China [See Outbreak movie, or trailers for World War Z] or some government germ warfare project [28 days movie?]) Which starts everything falling apart, then if there are two forms, the initial infection implies that the virus and it catalyst were brought together and then accidentally or purposely released.
So the world goes to heck in a hand basket.
Now come up to the present with our Telltale characters, where Lee and company find out that no matter how you die, that you 'turn'. So what we may have, since the virus is released, is a return to 'dormant' and 'active' forms, where the virus that is airborne has already infected most of us. It might be cool to assume that there are some, perhaps in underground bunkers, or perhaps in remote areas where prevailing winds were detoured, are still 'uninfected'. But at this point that is pure conjecture for a story arc that Telltale or Robert Kirkman may decide to never go into.
But for explanation purposes, let us assume that the reason we 'suddenly' succumb when bitten, when we are already infected is that, the dormant virus that is in most people already is 'triggered' when a zombie bite or scratch transfers the 'active' portion of the virus to the survivor.
Without the 'active' portion of the virus, the 'dormant' form can exist for seemingly years? Or a lifetime without the carrier showing evidence of the disease.
But this seems to me, that the 'carrier' portion of the virus could carry on, to children, if they were conceived after the apocalypse started, by the parents transferring it to the child. Or It may even prove to transfer to an uninfected survivor, child or not, if the virus is continually 'stirred up', but that may be a completely 'local' phenomenon, where lets say you came from a bank vault in a small town and survived the initial exposure, and then escaped town after most of the zombies had decayed to the point of no longer functioning, or even of being infectious any longer.
Which means moving into areas where zombies were still active and functional could expose you to the carrier portion of the virus, and a bite/scratch could 'activate' it.
But such a theory also means that if survivors could wait long enough, perhaps several months? Or a year? That the infected populations would have decayed and dried out [no more moist viable tissue remaining] then the 'carrier' portion of the virus could die. Perhaps meaning that if there were survivors that came into an area in containment suits with their own oxygen supply and were bit, or scratched, that they may not have been exposed to the underlaying 'carrier' portion of the virus first, so the bite might cause a nasty infection, but not a zombifying infection that would turn the survivor into a zombie.
Which might actually be cool, eh?
Of course this is only my 'theory', and Kirkman and Telltale have their own ideas, so maybe it will never be this way at all, but if I were writing a book, it might be cool to think of the virus working like this because it makes things hit and miss and gives people both dispair, but also hope of the virus dying out.
-Teal
//
Very common question, but not by a long shot the first time we've had a serious discussion about it. In fact, we've serioused it to death. Here are good threads you can go to that aren't full of TealBlue's rampant spamming:
Virus:
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36075
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36700
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36749
www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39215
Cross Contamination:
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38685
Animal Infection:
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38683
Or if you want Kirkman's official word, read the letter hacks from Issue 41:
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."
Except that tons of people turn without being bitten. Travis/The Teacher, the girl in Ben's story...I can name people from the comic and show too.
There's no spamming going on here.
the bite and the zombie infection are unrelated but i believe that the zombie virus uses the bite to help spread infection, like how a cold makes you sneeze and you spread the infection
Yeah Carley, one battery won't work without the other one....
HIV has been going strong for decades with no vaccine. I think you overestimate how quickly we can create a vaccination. Immune cases (if any) were probably just ripped apart by the zombies and died that way.
I was thinking the same think, I almost wrote it myself, but when I looked it up I came across an article citing a study that showed it's actually a venom that the komodo dragon uses to kill its victims not bacteria.
the bacteria is still a big part of it's attack strategy
good info
but the point is still the same. there's no real science behind the zombie bite, but we're led to believe it's the lethal 'venom' in a zombie bite that kills you.
If zombies biting you "accelerate" your infection.
Everybody is infected right?
What if non-zombie bit another non-zombie, and drew blood? Wouldn't that have the same effect?
it doesn't accelerate it, mouths of living people are full of bacteria so if a person bites you, you would need antibiotics else you may develop sepsis because of your infected bite and you may die of blood poisoning and turn into a zombie, so its the same with zombies but i think the bacteria level in a zombies mouth is even more than a normal living human
I doubt it. In the first hours of a ZA hospitals probably treat bites a number of ways. It just doesn't work.
Since you seem to be too retarded to navigate a forum, I'll make it as simple as possible. The bite doesn't spread the virus. Everyone is already infected. A zombie's mouth is a watering hole of bacteria, so if someone is bitten the bite gets infected; not with the zombie virus, like when a wound will get infected and leak puss but on a much more severe level. Then the body burns itself out fighting the bacteria and they die.
Yeah, I agree, a lot of people probably went to hospital when bitten and they started getting fever etc. most,if not all, of the common treatments would have been tried.
"A zombie's mouth is a watering hole of bacteria, so if someone is bitten the bite gets infected; not with the zombie virus, like when a wound will get infected and leak puss but on a much more severe level. Then the body burns itself out fighting the bacteria and they die. "
Bacteria from a rotting carcases mouth is what "= death".
I know exactly what you were discussing. I was rude and will stay rude when people are too lazy to figure out how to use the damn search function.