A Plot Hole in The Walking Dead(TV Series)

[KingHodor]

In short, the virus infects everyone, but only a few don't have the immune system to fight it off. When bit by the Walkers, the disease is strengthened, and body can't fight it back. It easily explains why virus started slow and grows and grows.

That doesn't really make sense. If you're HIV positive, and you're exposed to HIV again, you don't become more HIV positive.

Actually, there is something called an "HIV superinfection" where a patient acquires one or more additional strains of the virus, potentially accelerating the progression of the disease or complicating treatment due to different drug resistances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_superinfection

Anyway, from what I understand, walker bites cause an incurable, inevitably lethal infection, but I doubt that even the writers have devoted too much thought to whether zombie saliva contains a different strain of the virus or various corpse bacteria, or whether zombies have special glands that concentrate these pathogens in their saliva but not their blood.

Let's face it, the most obvious thing we learned from the CDC episodes is that the writers have never seen the inside of a microbiology lab, and actually think that you can fire a gun inside an active MRI tube.

 

[robot slipper]

This is a bit of an off topic post but is about The Walking Dead so it has some relevance to this thread.

Question: How much time has elapsed between the second and third series?

They keep talking about the winter having past, and Lori is full-term, so quite a few months. I think they mainly skipped the winter out of the show to deal with the fact that the kid who is playing Carl is having a growth spurt. What I found a bit stupid was that the second series ended with them panning over the prison, but it's not until now that they've been like "Ooooh a prison! Let's go check it out!".

Regarding the bites causing a massive infection leading to death (and subsequent resurrection as a zombie), I totally buy that. What I didn't understand from the recent episode was:

Spoiler

why they decided that the "red-shirt" prisoner was doomed because he got scratched by the recently exposed wrist bone of a zombie. Ok, it could have been an infected wound, but maybe less so than that of a bite. They could have at least locked him in a cell and waited to see if he developed a fever.

 

[cuzant]

The bigger plot hole is the fact that every living human is supposedly infected with the virus; and then it only becomes active all at one particular time. The worst virus in recorded history (1918 flu if your interested) only infected around 30% of people on earth (admittedly in a time where there was no air travel, but it was helped by the fact most of Europe's healthy men were stuck in a mud trench in France for the past 4 years).

Even HIV, which is a virus that's sole purpose is to attack the immune system, isn't a death sentence. Some people are infected with it and don't progress to AIDS and will live to die of old age or something else. So there is no chance of this virus having efficacy and the ability to infect everyone.

I could (and have) go on for hours about the medical inaccuracies in that show

 

[purf]

(Yeah, this goes in brackets. I like the series, I really do, but this thread's title - isn't it a bit of a tautology?)

 

[ServebotFrank]

I agree that the 'bites/scratches are fatal' thing is a bit of a plothole.

For one thing, the survivors get splashed with Walker blood so often they all would certainly be exposed to any viruses or bacteria common to Walkers (anyone remember that scene from 28 Days Later where the guy gets a single drop in his eye and is screwed?).

And if it IS just a matter of bites/scratches being dangerous solely due to standard infection, it seems like all you'd need is a bottle of iodine or a heap of salt to immediately rub into the wound and you'd be grand. Or hell, even a bottle of urine would serve as a disinfectant. If amputation works, it seems like any of those other options would.

The problem is that in the post apocalyptic world, I imagine that antibiotics are fairly uncommon and it hasn't been tried yet so we don't know if a shit ton of antibiotics will work. Daryl does happen to have a ton of them but I think he has those set aside for when it's needed and when he knows it will work. Not when someone got bit and the next best solution is to cut his limb off.

Also you have no idea of knowing what disease that person may be infected with. You can't just randomly give the guy antibiotics and hope that you didn't just waste your supplies.

OT: Looks like none of you read into the comics that much. Robert Kirkman has come out and said that the reason the bites are fatal is because zombies carry a bunch of diseases in their teeth. That person gets sick and dies. Since the zombies regularly tear into the guts of their victims with their hands, those nails are probably pretty infected too.

 

[Rednog]

HIV is just that strong a virus that your body has a very low chance of fighting it off. The zombie virus could be weak enough that your body can fight it until more is added.

Just want to point out that there really is not "strong" or "weak" viruses, merely it is a matter of how your body reacts to the virus and what/how the virus attacks in the person. HIV just happens to be super effective because it is a virus that attacks your immune system, and even then let's remember that it usually isn't the HIV virus that kills you it's usually is another disease that takes your out, HIV/AIDS just sets you up.

 

[CheckD3]

HIV is just that strong a virus that your body has a very low chance of fighting it off. The zombie virus could be weak enough that your body can fight it until more is added.

Just want to point out that there really is not "strong" or "weak" viruses, merely it is a matter of how your body reacts to the virus and what/how the virus attacks in the person. HIV just happens to be super effective because it is a virus that attacks your immune system, and even then let's remember that it usually isn't the HIV virus that kills you it's usually is another disease that takes your out, HIV/AIDS just sets you up.

Won't lie, didn't fully know the "strong/weak" thing, science and all that isn't my strong suit. Though it's easily possible that maybe the airborne part of the virus works in the way that HIV sets up AIDS. The actual infection that has you become a walker and the airborne part could both be two parts that when combined, turn you. That could explain the lack of a sample in the lab after he loses them all.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

The problem is that in the post apocalyptic world, I imagine that antibiotics are fairly uncommon and it hasn't been tried yet so we don't know if a shit ton of antibiotics will work.

Antibiotics are different from disinfectants. Antibiotics are for when an infection has already set in; disinfectants could be used to prevent infection altogether. If disinfectants work for doctors and nurses who handle all manner of sick people, it seems like it would work for treating a zombie scratch.

It seems like if zombie scratches are like any other wound, you could treat them like any other wound: with bandages and iodine/salt/urine/alcohol/fire/etc. You'd kill enough of the bacteria on contact that your immune system could easily handle the rest.

The only logical explanation is that the zombies in Walking Dead are magic.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Actually, there is something called an "HIV superinfection" where a patient acquires one or more additional strains of the virus, potentially accelerating the progression of the disease or complicating treatment due to different drug resistances.

Well, that's not really the same as being more infected. It just means you're infected with another virus that also happens to be called HIV.

On a side note, I remember reading a William Gibson novel set in the future where a new strain of HIV is discovered which is benign and actually competes with and kills off the other strains, effectively curing AIDS. It's an interesting idea.

 

[Sunrider]

Robert Singleton's character in season 2 cut himself on a piece of metal fairly early on and used antibiotics provided by Norman Reedus's character and came out fine. So I'm disinclined to believe that just weakening the body is enough to allow the virus to take over. It seems more likely that something in the bites is triggering the change.

Edit: Bad typing

Kinda off topic, but that was easily one of the most painful scenes I have ever watched. I can handle a lot, but for some reason, that made me freak the fuck out. I had to turn it off and do something else for a while just to get over it.