Could the Cordyceps Infection in TLOU Be Self-Limiting?

[StaceyPowers]

There are a lot of arguments for or against Joel’s decision at the end of The Last of Us, but is a vaccine for Cordyceps is even necessary?

I’ve thought about this a lot, and it seems to me that like any parasite, Cordyceps infects a host because it requires a host for survival. If there are no hosts available, Cordyceps should eventually die out.

The Infected themselves will all perish eventually, whether from lack of resources or old age. So in theory, it seems to me that if certain populations were able to quarantine themselves effectively, they could “wait out” the infection, which might be self-limiting.

I can think of three major problems:

1-Infected animals.

2-Dead bodies.

3-It’s hard to stop the spread of an airborne pathogen.

Aside from those Infected monkeys, we don’t have any evidence that animals actually succumb to this strain of Cordyceps (although, how cool would it be if this shows up in the sequel?). In fact, I’m pretty sure the Infected monkeys are only carriers—they don’t actually turn aggressive, progressing into Clickers or such.

So it seems unlikely at this point for animals to spread the infection. The next problem is the dead bodies. The tail end of the Cordyceps life cycle seems to be the collapse of the Infected victim in some dark corner somewhere. The corpse then becomes a spore factory.

That means the dead remain a threat, at least for a while. But even this cannot continue indefinitely. If the spores do not find new hosts, eventually, the body should decay beyond usefulness, and no longer sustain the spore factory.

The third issue seems like the most problematic to me. I have no idea how far the spores could potentially travel on the wind. Considering however that Joel and the others remove their masks pretty quickly when they are out of an immediate threat zone, I’m guessing it may not be a major issue either.

Now, I’m not saying that the infection being self-limiting necessarily justifies Joel’s actions (though I think there are other valid defenses for what he did). Nor am I saying that at least a couple of generations wouldn’t suffer horrifically. But it would mean that he didn’t destroy humanity’s last hope. Plus, vaccines do sometimes backfire. Imagine if Cordyceps managed to mutate and became even more virulent.

I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on the Cordyceps lifecycle and whether the infection could die out on its own with careful quarantining.

[DylanC]

Super interesting question. Definitely got me thinking. My knee-jerk reaction is that if Ellie is immune to the virus, then the truth is there must be more people who are immune to the virus like Ellie in the world, surely? Careful quarantining could be a way forward, but I think the fungal nature of the virus means it may take a long, long time for it to die out. Also, it could potentially lay dormant for many decades before it's truly wiped out. Heck, mushrooms can survive with very little nutrition for a very long time, so I'd say that some kind of vaccine would be essential for the survival of humanity. Just my two cents.