Everyone's infected, we learned that years ago. They can eat all "tainted shish kabob" they want as long as its cooked properly. Blood in eyes, mouth, can cause an infection just like other diseases and bacteria which may cause someone to get Ill and die from the illness. But no one is worried about getting infected. No one who knows the truth at least.

@JarekReanimated said:

Everyone's infected, we learned that years ago. They can eat all "tainted shish kabob" they want as long as its cooked properly. Blood in eyes, mouth, can cause an infection just like other diseases and bacteria which may cause someone to get Ill and die from the illness. But no one is worried about getting infected. No one who knows the truth at least.

You have bacteria in your body right now, of the type that devour dead tissue. They remain dormant until there's something to eat; i.e. until you sustain a serious injury that results in tissue death, or your whole body dies. I always saw the mysterious zombie agent as being like this. It's inside everyone - possibly because it's an infection everyone has caught, possibly because it saturates the environment and is present in air, water, and soil everywhere. Whatever the case it stays dormant in the living. Once they die it becomes active, restarting primitive brain function and preventing normal decomposition. I think what happens when people get bitten by walkers is that the active variant is introduced into their bodies and doesn't "go back to sleep". It migrates to the nervous system and tries to continue controlling those basic functions, which causes a fatal meningitis-like illness in the host.

Not every blood borne pathogen can pass through skin or other membranes like the cornea. Some can't survive the human digestive tract. And quite a few that can be transmitted through direct blood-to-blood contact aren't contagious enough to make that process certain. In fact it may only cause new infections in a small number of cases. Maybe something about the composition of saliva is essential to the transmission which is why bites are the only significant mode of spread.

@JarekReanimated said:

Everyone's infected, we learned that years ago. They can eat all "tainted shish kabob" they want as long as its cooked properly. Blood in eyes, mouth, can cause an infection just like other diseases and bacteria which may cause someone to get Ill and die from the illness. But no one is worried about getting infected. No one who knows the truth at least.

I see it like this as well. Everyone's already "infected" with the problem of postmortem reanimation, barring the destruction of the brain and/or brain stem. Walkers are a problem because they are mobile petri dishes of bad bacteria and festering diseases, which will likely cause illness and death if their fluids, dirty skin, flesh, bone, or even possibly their clothing comes into contact with your own bodily fluids such as blood and possibly any open orifice membrane if not immediately cleaned with water or, in the case of blood infection, a healthy helping of antibiotics. On top of that, the walkers are feral and cognitively deficient with no checks on their physical strength like a normal person would. Therefore their bodies just go on exerting as much force as they are able regardless of how much ripping and tearing it causes to themselves.

Now, getting into nitpicky territory here, but the thing about them exerting physical force and making sound is strange if they also aren't breathing. Bodies function on a steady flow of blood and oxygen. Unless there's a hidden substitute here, like mutated bacteria supplying energy to the muscles, it's a little weird. I guess there are some things you just have to not think too hard about, hehe.

I was wondering about this during the last episode. I thought people could die from getting walker juice in an open wound but Rick gets impaled on one of the spikes on the armored walker (would that be enough in itself since blood would have been on it when the blade went through flesh at one point?) plus the open wound on his hand was in direct contact with the walker on multiple occasions, all kinds of stuff could have gotten in there...

@chrisjdel said:

We know the bite will infect you. What about the blood? It doesn't look like getting it in your eyes or even in your mouth is a problem, but what about an open bleeding cut? Or being stabbed with a bloody walker bone? Would the Terminus survivors have gotten sick from eating Bob's leg, or was Gareth right that cooking made it safe? They didn't live long enough for us to find out. And why have none of the Saviors suffered any ill effects from eating the Kingdom's walker-fed pork? I don't suppose anyone knows of an interview or other source where someone associated with TWD has gotten specific. The writers for the show must have a set of guidelines on this.

I think it's saliva.

@Dreamfever said:

I was wondering about this during the last episode. I thought people could die from getting walker juice in an open wound but Rick gets impaled on one of the spikes on the armored walker (would that be enough in itself since blood would have been on it when the blade went through flesh at one point?) plus the open wound on his hand was in direct contact with the walker on multiple occasions, all kinds of stuff could have gotten in there...

There was a scene at the beginning of Season 6, when they were trying to lead the herd away from Alexandria. Rick cut himself with a knife he was using to kill walkers. He looked at the wound for a moment and was obviously wondering if he had just infected himself. But there was no time to think about that, he was needed to deal with the crisis, and if he got sick later then he got sick later. But of course he never did.

We still have no clue to the nature of the zombie agent. Viruses need the metabolism of living cells to reproduce, so I personally think that's an unlikely possibility. Here are my two favorite theories:

1) It's an ancient organism unearthed by, say, a natural gas fracking operation (damn oil companies!). The Earth has had a series of mass extinctions throughout its history. The one that came closest to wiping out all life was the Permian-Triassic event 225 million years ago. 96% of the world's species died off including most of the insects. Suppose there was this organism: how about parasitic necrotizing slime mold? A parasite that requires a dead host. It may have been everywhere in small concentrations. When compatible species died, they re-animated and for a few years served as incubators for the parasite as they stumbled around their world, until slow decomposition eventually neutralized them. Predators wouldn't touch them of course. Dead rotten meat, yuck! For some reason, maybe just the fact that the feeding instinct gets reactivated along with basic motor function, the zombie animals would attack and bite other creatures. Eat them if possible. Unlike humans though, the host animals didn't have overpopulation issues with millions of them crammed into close quarters so the infection never spread like a plague. It always remained at manageable levels.

When the mass extinction hit, the entire class of animal life that could host the parasite was wiped out and so it eventually vanished from the environment. Except for a few underground pockets with unique conditions that preserved the organism. By sheer bad luck, humans alone happen to share some random trait with the old host animals. When some of the parasite is released, it immediately spreads out and people in the area who die become infected with it. The massive human population guarantees within a few short weeks the ancient slime mold is back with a vengeance!

2) The second and more scientifically plausible explanation involves nanotechnology. Self-replicating nanites, perhaps prototypes of medical bots that are nowhere near ready to use, breach containment and enter the environment. Because they were designed for human beings they're completely species specific and don't affect any other form of life. But within a short time they've replicated and spread. Basically, when a body re-animates the stupid med bots are activating to save the patient. However their design and programming is unfinished so they perform only a few of their intended functions ... and many of those improperly.

The aggressive behavior of the walkers, again, results from primal instincts like the need to feed being reactivated along with the other lower brain functions. Nanites could potentially scavenge energy from their surroundings. Sunlight, wind, differences in ambient temperature, possibly even chemical energy stored in certain materials. This provides an explanation for what's powering the walkers and why even the ones trapped in rooms with nothing to eat are still moving around. It also may explain why the walkers continue to take in air and make sounds. Since their dead lungs aren't working the nanites first create a negative pressure to draw in air, then increase pressure again to expel it, over and over again. Like an invisible respirator. No oxygen is absorbed of course. The air just goes in and comes right back out - but it lets them growl and make noise.

When Daryl shot a deer, they wouldn't let him eat it because walkers were eating it. They didn't know about the infection then.

On ftwd Nick eats raw dead dog that walkers had just been eating off of and he's fine.

Blood gets all over people and it doesn't seem to matter. I think because they're already infected. But I bite or a scratch will infect you...more? I don't know. It still makes me cringe though.

@chrisjdel said:

There was a scene at the beginning of Season 6, when they were trying to lead the herd away from Alexandria. Rick cut himself with a knife he was using to kill walkers. He looked at the wound for a moment and was obviously wondering if he had just infected himself. But there was no time to think about that, he was needed to deal with the crisis, and if he got sick later then he got sick later. But of course he never did.

We still have no clue to the nature of the zombie agent. Viruses need the metabolism of living cells to reproduce, so I personally think that's an unlikely possibility. Here are my two favorite theories:

1) It's an ancient organism unearthed by, say, a natural gas fracking operation (damn oil companies!). The Earth has had a series of mass extinctions throughout its history. The one that came closest to wiping out all life was the Permian-Triassic event 225 million years ago. 96% of the world's species died off including most of the insects. Suppose there was this organism: how about parasitic necrotizing slime mold? A parasite that requires a dead host. It may have been everywhere in small concentrations. When compatible species died, they re-animated and for a few years served as incubators for the parasite as they stumbled around their world, until slow decomposition eventually neutralized them. Predators wouldn't touch them of course. Dead rotten meat, yuck! For some reason, maybe just the fact that the feeding instinct gets reactivated along with basic motor function, the zombie animals would attack and bite other creatures. Eat them if possible. Unlike humans though, the host animals didn't have overpopulation issues with millions of them crammed into close quarters so the infection never spread like a plague. It always remained at manageable levels.

When the mass extinction hit, the entire class of animal life that could host the parasite was wiped out and so it eventually vanished from the environment. Except for a few underground pockets with unique conditions that preserved the organism. By sheer bad luck, humans alone happen to share some random trait with the old host animals. When some of the parasite is released, it immediately spreads out and people in the area who die become infected with it. The massive human population guarantees within a few short weeks the ancient slime mold is back with a vengeance!

2) The second and more scientifically plausible explanation involves nanotechnology. Self-replicating nanites, perhaps prototypes of medical bots that are nowhere near ready to use, breach containment and enter the environment. Because they were designed for human beings they're completely species specific and don't affect any other form of life. But within a short time they've replicated and spread. Basically, when a body re-animates the stupid med bots are activating to save the patient. However their design and programming is unfinished so they perform only a few of their intended functions ... and many of those improperly.

The aggressive behavior of the walkers, again, results from primal instincts like the need to feed being reactivated along with the other lower brain functions. Nanites could potentially scavenge energy from their surroundings. Sunlight, wind, differences in ambient temperature, possibly even chemical energy stored in certain materials. This provides an explanation for what's powering the walkers and why even the ones trapped in rooms with nothing to eat are still moving around. It also may explain why the walkers continue to take in air and make sounds. Since their dead lungs aren't working the nanites first create a negative pressure to draw in air, then increase pressure again to expel it, over and over again. Like an invisible respirator. No oxygen is absorbed of course. The air just goes in and comes right back out - but it lets them growl and make noise.

I love reading your theories. 💕 I enjoy them a lot. 👍👏👊

@Nubyan said: I love reading your theories. 💕 I enjoy them a lot. 👍👏👊

Why thank you! In all fairness that second one wasn't really an original idea of mine, a number of stories have featured nanotech as their zombie pathogen because it does have some scientific credibility. The first one I made up on my own though. It's a little game I like to play with shows that have far-fetched premises, asking myself how you could actually make it happen and coming up with a theory. Doesn't always work but at least I have fun trying. I'm glad someone else enjoys my random speculations.

@chrisjdel said:

Why thank you! In all fairness that second one wasn't really an original idea of mine, a number of stories have featured nanotech as their zombie pathogen because it does have some scientific credibility. The first one I made up on my own though. It's a little game I like to play with shows that have far-fetched premises, asking myself how you could actually make it happen and coming up with a theory. Doesn't always work but at least I have fun trying. I'm glad someone else enjoys my random speculations.

They were both interesting and thought provoking. However, I actually enjoyed theory #1 the most. So. Way to go! 🏅🏆