Random Walking Dead Question

[AZRedhawk44]

In season 3, halfway through the season, there's 5 folks that enter the prison through a burned down section of it.

One of them gets bit on the arm.  Relatively non-life-threatening wound.

Or, take Hershel's bite on the leg earlier in the season.

If everyone alive is infected already, and everyone turns in death regardless of being bitten or not, how does a bite cause relatively instant death and turning?

[lupinus]

My understanding/thought would be massive infection. Both of the infection that makes you into the zombie (massive dose as opposed to whatever you picked up randomly) as well as God knows what else is living in there. So you get bit, massive infection, and it's nighty nighty pretty damn quick.

Combine that that what is pretty well assuredly malnutrition, lack of hygiene, and exposure to greater or lesser degrees along with a lack of meds to fight the infection.

[HankB]

It's like the TV commercials - "If you had chicken pox, the shingles virus is already inside you."

We don't know what causes SOME people to develop shingles; most don't. But SOMETHING triggers shingles in SOME people.

In terms of zombies, death is a triggering event that will wake the dormant virus and zombify the newly dead. Of course, the massive infusion of ACTIVE virus that comes with a zombie bite is enough to trigger the dormant virus out of latency as well.

Exposure to the air can kill the virus, which is why zombie blood spatter doesn't routinely zombify the living.

Now you know. 

[erictank]

It's like the TV commercials - "If you had chicken pox, the shingles virus is already inside you."

We don't know what causes SOME people to develop shingles; most don't. But SOMETHING triggers shingles in SOME people.

In terms of zombies, death is a triggering event that will wake the dormant virus and zombify the newly dead. Of course, the massive infusion of ACTIVE virus that comes with a zombie bite is enough to trigger the dormant virus out of latency as well.

Exposure to the air can kill the virus, which is why zombie blood spatter doesn't routinely zombify the living.

Now you know. 

Workable explanation as far as the show goes, I'd say!

[lee n. field]

Amazing the things you learn on the Internetz.