Talk:Carriers

Leave it to the Professionals
I think someone should make the Quotes be "We've been Immune so far, but if I start to turn, promise you'll shoot me!" (Bill) and "Rescue 7, are you equipped for Carriers?" (Papa Gator). If you want, you can have Rescue 7's response (A-ffirmative, Papa Gator) added to the List. A Reasonable Pic should be some of the graffiti regarding Carriers, as it is hard to get a useable Picture of a Carrier. Anyone wants to add any references, do so. Stub-ifying the Article for now... 94.195.236.134 11:48, May 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * Found a better quote to use. :3 Sera404 13:48, May 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * Aces! You're pretty good at this! 94.195.236.134 19:32, May 10, 2010 (UTC)
 * I wanted to make a new heading, but this editing page didn't allow me to do it for some reason, so this will seem off topic. Are we certain that the immune even exist? So far, from what the comic states, anybody who doesn't show signs of infection is a carrier. So I was thinking that we might want to get rid of the entire carrier vs immune secttion, since both things seem to be the same.Whachamacallit 21:59, September 21, 2010 (UTC)
 * Leave it in for now; the Survivors in both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 obviously believed they are immune (even if they're not). Sera404 22:11, September 21, 2010 (UTC)
 * Leave it in for now; the Survivors in both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 obviously believed they are immune (even if they're not). Sera404 22:11, September 21, 2010 (UTC)

Louis & Francis as Carriers
I understand that the doctor was never shown explicitly stating in-comic that Louis and Francis are carriers, but can't we use some more hidden evidence to support this?

-When Francis first wakes up with his headache, he asks if he was hit with the butt of the gun AGAIN. Maybe he was uncooperative with the testing?

-On page 75, Louis is seen clutching his head in horror exclaiming "So we've been Infecting people this whole time?" and goes on to mention the pilot and the Slaters. How would he know this without being told by the guards who presumably heard it from the doctor? He obviously was not in contact with Zoey and Bill.

I understand there are some holes in this evidence because we haven't seen the full story, but I feel like we should include them under "Confirmed Carriers". What do you guys think? Nightmirage 19:39, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

I 100% agree with you. As you stated, there's enough evidence to be mostly certain that Louis and Francis are carriers. Or at least, there's a lot more direct evidence supporting the fact that Francis and Louis are carriers then most subject matters. I mean if we put up all those hypotheses about how the special infected come to in the Green Flu article (not that there bad, but they are nothing but hypotheses) why can't we say that Louis and Francis are carriers?Whachamacallit 19:48, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

I was the one who added the "Confirmed Carriers" section earler today. I originally had all 4 survivors as confirmed but then remembered only reading that the Doctor had really only revealed this to zoey and bill. That's why I changed it. I mean, I'm 99.9% sure they're also carriers but at the time I wrote it, it seemed that there was a lack of proof. Up until the recent comic, the carrier article itself was majorily conjecture so since it's in the process of becoming canon, I figured I should be as accurate as possible. But honestly, it would be easier to just confirm all Francis and Louis as well. I'd say do it. Shawty71 20:58, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

I guess. I mean before the Alarm is raised, Louis reacts as though he's just been told he's a Carrier as he says Francis may be the only one he can be with without killing him. What I wanna ask is that Jeff and Annie (The Soldiers) are travelling with whom we believe to be Carriers. Should we class those two as well? Chris Thorpe 21:02, September 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * PS, I would like to refer to this page's bottom-left panel where Jeff and Annie converse with each other. Chris Thorpe 21:08, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

From what I read, I was pretty certain they were carriers too. I think we should edit that in. Imperialscouts 21:12, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Hypothesis Regarding Carrier Genes
This is my hypothesis regarding the genes for carriers, though I don't claim to be an expert. My hypothesis is that the "Carrier Gene", described by the Doc as passed down the male line, is a Y-linked gene. Such genes are rare, and only expressed in males. This explains the relative rarity of Carriers, and the fact that 75% of playable characters are male. As for Zoey and Rochelle, I suspect that a rare recessive gene exists which also causes immunity. Zoey's mother, for example, carried one recessive gene for immunity, but this was not enough. It may turn out that this immunity is different from the immunity of Carriers - a fact which may be discovered in part 3, when the Doc gets around to testing Zoey's saliva. As well as genetics, part of this theory is based on narrative convenience - it would be quite dramatic if it turned out that Zoey has a previously unknown form of immunity.

Another possibility is that there is a single Immune/Carrier gene. If this gene were X-recessive, it would mean that Zoey's father was immune, while her mother only had one copy of the gene. The chance of a woman having this immunity would be 1/X^2, where 1/X is the probability that a man carries the immunity. If fewer than 10% of males are Carriers, less than 1% of females would be. As 25% of known and probable Carriers are female, I disagree with this hypothesis, but thought it worthwhile to bring up for comparison. Chamale 04:32, September 23, 2010 (UTC)