Why is the CDC subplot ignored throughout the series?

Having watched the whole series previously, but while it was aired live and having waited week to week, my recent binge-watch of The Walking Dead on Netflix (I'm at Season 5) made me realize something--the CDC subplot is totally ignored by the main characters, when there are at least three major instances in which the CDC subplot would have cleared up a lot of confusion.

First is immediately in Season 2, when Hershel and his family delusionally believe that the walkers are still people. At no point during Season 2 does Rick's group mention that they were at the CDC, and that they saw literal neurological evidence that the virus kills off every aspect of who you were, and only revives the components of your brain that want to kill and eat. You'd think that this would be a compelling thing to note to a medical professional (Hershel), and yet it never even gets brought up.

Secondly is during Andrea's stay with the Governor. There's a scene when the Gov and the Doc are eating with Andrea, and grilling her on if she thinks there's still someone inside the walkers. Andrea knows the definitive answer to this question: no. As a viewer, I kept waiting for her to bring up the bombshell fact that she's been to the CDC, saw neurological evidence of the walkers having no humanity, and clearing it up once and for all. Nope. Never brings it up. Even during the doctor's trial with the old man, Andrea can simply explain to him that she knows for a CDC-established fact that the walkers are just walkers, and yet never does.

Lastly, and perhaps most glaringly, during the Eugene saga. The doctor at the CDC explicitly states that the people who got closest to a cure were the French, and yet they had gone black for months (I'm paraphrasing). He further notes that the reason why the creation of a vaccine, let alone the administration of such a vaccine, could never work is because all power grids everywhere are defunct. How does Rick's group never once think to bring up these huge and valid concerns to Eugene when they're questioning him and his imaginary band of scientists? These seem like the most obvious things to ask. How can you make a cure, Eugene? How can you mass-produce your theoretical biological weapon, Eugene? What infrastructure or facilities exist to undergo any such venture, Eugene? Any question of this variety would have poked a massive hole in his story, and again, all of it would have been cleared up by the subplot of the CDC.

So what gives? Was the CDC basically retconned by the writers in following seasons or something? Did it become an unofficial writers' rule to have the characters never mention that they were at the CDC? It is baffling to me how three major plot points could have been resolved by a simple mention of the CDC, and yet it is literally never brought up again.

Submitted January 02, 2021 at 06:43PM by curiousprospect https://ift.tt/2KUtzEI