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Can Some Explain This Potential Plot Hole?

posted 7 years ago by sam_waz
6 replies | jump to latest

Can someone please explain why they don't use the containers to get healthy people out of the cordon? If they are healthy, and they remain virus free in the containers for 48 hrs, they are allowed to escape to the normal world. Similar to how Lex and the crazy lady doctor had to be in quarantine for 48 hrs before being allowed back into the 'healthy side'. They could've instituted that program since day 1 and gotten all the healthy individuals out within weeks if they had enough containers prepped for that purpose.

[–] Lsmorris67 7 years ago

The virus has mutated. Symptoms are now taking longer than 48 hours to show up in some. Someone may look healthy when in fact they are not. Can't take that chance.

[–] sam_waz 7 years ago

Yea I spoke too soon, I hadn't gotten to that episode yet. But can someone explain how Lex and the doctor were allowed to leave after 48hrs? Can't they have gotten the mutated form of the virus from Thomas and not know they are carriers?

[–] Lsmorris67 7 years ago

It hadn't mutated at that point. I think it was around episode 10 or so when they realize.

[–] sam_waz 7 years ago

Right, but they knew Thomas was now a carrier, the reason why they quarantined them. But how do they know that neither Lex or the doctor were carriers too. Maybe they had the same gene as Thomas (and the priest), and can pass the virus over to someone else.

[–] JEBjr 7 years ago

It wouldn't have hurt for the characters to have discussed ideas like that, but I think the basic principle is probably sound: no one goes in, no one comes out. It could be risky to let anyone out, regardless of quarantine, before the virus is fully understood; there could be something about it that no one has yet discovered. What's more, there'd be a big practical problem in choosing who goes first. Similar situations have arisen in the real world, with Ebola for instance. There's a 2014 New York Times story about a quarantine in Liberia at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/world/africa/ebola-outbreak-liberia-quarantine.html?_r=0.

[–] eileenpa 7 years ago

Good point about quarantine. We are being exposed to more viruses and bacteria as the world warms. The Zika virus takes approximately three weeks to clear from female bodily fluids, but up to six months at least from male bodily fluids. This means Zika can be sexually passed, like HIV, unless safe sex is practiced for the entire time post-infection.

If an Ebola-type virus started behaving the same way as Zika, the world would almost certainly face a potential worldwide epidemic of disastrous proportions - comparable to the containment zone.