You were supposed to pay attention to what Morgan was saying in the damn pilot! Bites and scratches are what cause the fever. The fever burns you out, you die, and then you reanimate.
With Herschel, he was bitten on an extremity. Luckily, Rick hacked that shit off before it had time to enter Herschel's bloodstream. Big Tiny and T-Dogg were bitten in similar places (near the shoulder/back if I remember correctly). In those cases, what are you going to amputate? Their necks? Not likely.
Everyone is infected with whatever causes reanimation after death. So whether you die from the fever that is caused by being bitten (the fate suffered by Morgan's wife, Jenner's wife aka TS-19, and probably Jim), if you die from the injury caused by the bite/scratch (Amy, possibly Sophia, and Dale if it weren't for Daryl putting him down first), or you die from some other cause (as evidenced with Randall, Shane, Merle, etc.), the result will be the same. Herschel got lucky because he was bitten on a spot that could be quickly and easily removed.
TL;DR: I am way too knowledgable about this damn show.
Posted By: SecretMe11
If you haven't watched through end of season 3...you won't want to read on.
So...if everyone is infected...how do non-lethal bites turn people?
For example...Herschal, why amputate his leg? In the same episode, the huge AA inmate that is bitten on his back. And potentially...Andrea at the end of season 3 (although...her wounds very well might have been fatal). All three of these people might have survived their wounds. Two were killed to prevent them from turning and the third was maimed.
If bites do still turn people....does that mean there are different strains of the infection?
I don't think we've seen any examples in the last season and a half of people that are bitten....don't "die"...and then turn.
Did I find a plot hole? Or another plot twist yet untangled?
