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apocalypse, Cure for zombies, death, fiction, geek, nerd, opinion, Science fiction, The Walking Dead, TWD, Walking Dead, zombie, Zombies
I have always been a fan of zombie movies. I have read a few books that I enjoyed as well. When the Walking Dead premiered I was hooked instantly. To be completely forward I have to say that I did not start reading the comics until about half way through season 3. Now that we are on season 4 and I have currently read through issue #109 of the comics, I am still interested.
When I was in high school a buddy and I would occasionally debate the idea of zombies, how to survive and everything in-between. One of the major topics was the “reality” of a cure. This could raise some interesting points as it would depend on the current zombie lore we were talking about and we both differed on opinion.
Here is my argument; I think that a cure is never going to be possible in zombie lore. I have a grand argument to prove my point but for now I will settle for the bare bones. Let me start by the idea of one and the chance of it working is sort of a horrifying thought. By the end of this you will understand why.
Point #1 – Research: An apocalypse has broken out and now you are tasked with finding a cure for the people turned into zombies. To pull this off you would need a secure place to work that also has access and people to capture test subjects. Since there is a world of people trapped in the dangerous situation that seems like a hard thing to come across. Not only would you need the location for it, but you would also have to turn people in need away.
Point #2 – Resources: As I stated in point 1 you would need people to get test subject, a.k.a. the walking dead. People you can trust and know will follow the rules will be the first and likely most difficult resource to find. You will also need power, gas, medical supplies and lab equipment. On top of all of this you will still need to get your hands of water and food.
Point #3 – Medical: According to Princeton University the main factor for recovering from death is the brain. Without additional treatment full recovery after three minutes is limited. If this is considered, then in theory, if someone dies and turns, you have about three minutes to administer the cure. This is assuming that they turn instantly. You would also have to consider the cause of their original death. If it was an absolute form of death then a cure is out of the question. If they had severe injury then you have to consider chances of survival and quality of life.
Point #4 – Post cure: If something worked under all of the above reasons the person would likely have other complications and a long recovery time. Out in the open this is unlikely to succeed and will risk your life as well as theirs. If you could cure a person even later in in a zombie state, like after a week or two of becoming one it could be worse. Not only do you have to consider the other items but think of the mental state. Best case scenario would be minimal impact from the original cause of death and no memory of their time as a zombie. Worse case does not even need to factor physical since mental state is a frightening thought in itself. If you were a zombie for a week and were revived with memories of that time it would be unthinkable. Imagine you wake up on a table as a human with thoughts and memories of chasing people down and eating them. I cannot imagine recovering from that.
Summary: I am not a scientist nor am I a doctor. I am also well aware that zombies or the walking dead are totally factious. This is a totally hypothetical argument for my personal amusement. I am also only referring to curing those already changed. That said I think that a cure should never be introduced in zombie lore where the zombies are defined as walking dead who eat the living. There are too many factors involved and it would just become a heaping mess. At best it would be interesting to see if a weapon could be made. If the body is driven to rise from death by a virus, the best I could see is isolating the virus, finding a way to kill it, therefore stopping the body from moving.
Feel free to share your thoughts on this or offer a counter argument. Like I said it is just my opinion and I base it off barely any actual knowledge. I would also be interested in hearing other theories as well.
Thank you for reading,
Tom Dorsey
Animockery Studios 
A possibility for a cure depends on what type of zombie we’re talking about. There are all types of weird ones out there…
In any case, any cure for a turned human would mean finding a way to raise the dead since a zombie, by definition, is undead. And that would mean dwelving into the dark arts which requires a rather hefty price. And what good would a former zombie be in case of a world-wide pandemic anyways?
A cure for someone just bitten, on the other hand, may be useful, as that means less zombies running around. But again, this usefulness depends on what lore you follow, as a live person may mean a potentional zombie in some cases.
So, yeah, forget a cure; just run and smite.
You made some interesting points, some I honestly did not consider. I often forget about the mystical zombie approach. You are absolutely correct that it depends on the lore.
Which then begs the question: which zombies did you have in mind when you wrote this?
At the time it was the “virus” type from the Walking dead. I have also thought a little about the older lore like night of the living dead. They have some similarities but NoLD never really explains the cause. Either way even back in my high school days my buddy and I could agree on one thing. If an argument were to be had we would approach it from a viral zombie concept.
now, if we were lucky enough to live in a Final Fantasy sort of world is all we would need is a vile of Holy Water.
But we would have to spend much time getting said Holy Water, so by the time we did get it, one vial wouldn’t be enough anymore.
We could always hope to reach a situation like the one in Sean of the Dead, though I’m not sure it’s really possible.
A Shaun of the Dead scenario would be welcomed, at least the end result. If that did happen then there would be a new market for zombie deodorizer and zombie muzzles.
Unfortunately, how do we get to that end result? It’s never explained in the movie. The only thing I can think of is that the plague was only in that one town, so the military got the upper hand fairly quickly.