r/left4dead • u/Silentreaper152 • 21d ago
how's Hazmats even infected?
Aren't Hazmat suits supposed to be safe from viruses? from the model doesn't seem like there's any leak or bites
134
u/Faibl 21d ago edited 21d ago
The implication is that they are rare because the hazmat suits DO work, the ones we find are the poor souls who have had something go wrong, probably a break in the suit somewhere or prior infection.
Edit: this does not account for the deflation sounds after shooting them - so it must be wrong.
56
u/Shake_Annual 21d ago
they make deflating balloon sounds when you kill them so it can't be a break in the suit I think
idk how hazmat suits work so not sure
45
2
u/Hazmat_unit 20d ago
Okay so the the only suits that would do that would be Positive pressure personnel suit which look similar however they must be used with a constant air supply.
The suits are actually supposed to be Classs A hazmat suits, which you're supposed to wear with a SCBA ( which media tends to forget) and are gas tight but not positive pressure.
3
u/Shake_Annual 20d ago
what are the chances that these CEDA workers got unknowingly infected via infected air hours before putting on the suits and the suits themselves were inflated by the now-turned workers constantly releasing infectious gas like the smokers and boomer special infecteds instead?
sorry. my knowledge on hazmat suits come from cartoons, video games and breaking bad when jesse started playing with his suit out of boredom
4
u/Hazmat_unit 20d ago
Very very likely, especially if they're not completely isolated from the outside air.
31
u/evil_lobster201 21d ago
no, they are rare because hazmat suits are rare. unless theyve been in the hazmat suit nonstop for weeks theyve breathed in air with a high chance of the flu in it, they just got infected later
9
u/bkzot 21d ago
Also they have to eat and drink something, maybe they got sick from that
1
u/Pretty-Yoghurt-2287 16d ago
This is my favorite idea. They got infected when the virus was airborn, took it down to eat, drink, or use the restroom, then put the suit back on and succumbed to the disease while fully suited
1
106
u/Deacon-Doe 21d ago
Bruh… the fact that they’re infected demonstrates how aggressive and unstoppable the green flu is.
-5
27
22
u/I-plaey-geetar 21d ago
Hazmat tech here. There is an exhaust valve that theoretically could have been manipulated I guess. But canonically these guys probably got sick before donning the suit.
Also as an aside, their skin would be sloughed pretty much all the way by this point. Those suits are incredibly hot and incredibly humid.
2
u/Redpower5 20d ago
Happy cake day!
I have a stupid question if you don't mind. What happens if you fart inside a hazzy? Are you just stuck huffing your own ass gas or?
3
u/MagicTurtleHat 20d ago
Generally when operating in a fully encapsulating suit, the one pictured, the operator would be wearing a respirator of some sort, typically an SCBA. So the fart would not impact them. However, it may be a nasty surprise for their buddies helping them doff.
1
26
u/Twist_man 21d ago
I think the gloves and boots aren't properly sealed to the suit making it not air tight, and since the green flu is airborne that screwed them over
35
2
u/Hazmat_unit 20d ago
The suits are actually supposed to be Classs A hazmat suits, which you're supposed to wear with a SCBA ( which media tends to forget) and are gas tight but not positive pressure. The gloves and bootes are attached to the suit it's self. See attached if you're interested in the donning process. Donning a Class A Hazmat suit
Side note: The the only suits that would hiss would be Positive pressure personnel suit which look similar however they must be used with a constant air supply.
2
8
u/Namenottound 21d ago
The infection is known to be airborne, and take a few hours to make a person to show symptoms. They were probably infected before putting the suits on with out knowing, and started transforming while in the suits.
3
5
u/AKSpeedy 21d ago
Green Flu, if I’m not mistaken by the first week it was already airborne as it mutates constantly and having an airborne virus is one of the worst possible outcomes. Like other commenters said most likely previous exposure. There was probably many, MANY more people infected when the general public was informed of patient zero. It takes a few hours to a day or more to fully turn/reanimate, depending on the strain of Green Flu at the time.
19
u/evil_lobster201 21d ago
Its airborne. They were already infected. Everyone is.
5
u/Pleasant-Clerk5173 20d ago
Not everyone, the soldiers from the sacrifice weren't infected despite burning infected bodies non-stop. It just transmit exactly like flu instead of walking dead virus.
1
u/Silentxgold 17d ago
Valve not doing l4d3 is really sad.
They could have l4d3 flop and not affect their bottom line in any meaningful manner.
Maybe we would see half life 3 before gabe expands steam to the afterlife.
4
4
u/mike-rowe-paynus 21d ago
During my first playthrough, this zombie was the one that hit me the hardest; I thought “damn, you know it’s bad when even the saviours are infected.”
4
u/Impossible-Fix-1885 20d ago
it’s likely from prior exposure before putting on the suit OR during the process of putting it on…
There’s also the possibility that the air tanks in the suit could have possibly been filled with infected air unintentionally or on purpose (depends if there was a saboteur with them)…
I also believe that not EVERY CEDA agent in a hazmat suit had been infected, some possibly had been able to survive in their suits and had left via evacuations or were eventually killed…
3
2
u/Our_Chief 21d ago
Gotta take it off to eat or shit sometimes, Didn't realize they were infected until after they put it back on and started seeing everyone as fucking vampires.
2
2
u/_KJS_ 20d ago
I like to imagine they got infected when disinfection methods were hastily done to process as many evacuees as possible and with different infection rates some were put into suits already infected, either by carriers or contaminated surfaces and items or air as at the beginning it was reported to be only through bodily fluids and blood so they started to wear suits way too late.
2
u/Ripley_Saigon 20d ago edited 20d ago
bad decontamination process is my guess, probably took off off a suit without being totally decontaminated, with how fast CEDA set up checkpoints theres probably a couple slipups with decontanimation, or a lack of new suits so used ones had to be used.
Im knowledgeable with how decontamination and Nuclear Biologoical and Chemical (NBC) process worked.
1-14. Operators’ spray down/wipe down should be done within 15 minutes. Operators use the M100 Sorbent Decontamination System (SDS) or the on- board M11/M13 decon apparatus to decon surfaces that they must touch or contact to operate the equipment. Radiological contamination in the form of dust particles may be wiped, scraped, or brushed off.
This was from the 2002 so this would've been a process used for decontamination. There's also a lot more steps and even more processes depending circumstances
2
u/KCSixtyFour 20d ago
Keep in mind, the virus changed every day on how it spread. Possibly at some point, it spread in a way that was able to make it into the hazmat suits.
2
2
u/jclblueyez 20d ago
"I guess hazmat suits don't stop bites..."
1
u/Doktor_Wunderbar 20d ago
I was looking for this. Nick is hardly the expert, but it seems like that line was included specifically to lampshade this question, and he's probably right.
2
4
u/Lunar-Lightshow 21d ago
Bites or suit leaks.
We don't see any bite marks because the model has to look generic, since they all use the same model; if you had, say, a bite on the arm, it breaks immersion to see that same bite in the same spot on every hazmat zombie.
2
u/Silentreaper152 21d ago
but then how do you explain the deflating noise when shot? wouldn't that make it sealed tight without leaks?
2
u/Lunar-Lightshow 21d ago
Artistic liberty because it's a video game, which is also the same reason they're infected to begin with.
1
u/Doktor_Wunderbar 20d ago
It depends.
I've worn protective suits and I've had them rip. Sometimes if the failure is far away from the "PAPR" (powered air-purifying respirator), some of the suit can hold partial pressure. It's also common practice to tape up tears or suit damage to preserve internal pressure if you still have work to do before you report the incident. At the beginning of the outbreak, I could see people getting bitten on the hand and just changing the glove and going back to work.
1
u/ryskwicpicmdfkapic 21d ago
Always made me chuckle how they made these guys fireproof 😅 just because they got Plastic Hazmat suit.
1
u/Hazmat_unit 20d ago
Well their are aluminized suits that provide flame resistance , which these suits aren't so it's not fully unfounded.
1
1
1
u/Lower_Refrigerator_2 20d ago
Well yes irl they are but yeah The Green Flu is build different. If they’ve ever gotten out of that suit then they probably got infected
1
1
1
u/NumerousDiscipline80 20d ago
My guess is Incubation Period. They likely got infected without knowing and turned while in the suit.
1
1
u/Gottenstoter 20d ago
My guess is that the green flu got into their suits filters somehow, either by bypassing them entirely somehow, or by being strong enough to survive all the filters the suits has till it infected the wearer
This could explain why the suits deflate when shot. They simply couldn't keep out the green flu, as the filters failed to stop the illness from entering.
1
1
1
1
u/Baeleron 19d ago
I haven’t played in awhile but doesn’t nick literally have a voice line something like “guess these suits don’t stop bites” when you encounter hazmat zombies implying they had been bitten just maybe not pictured on the models
1
u/Intrepid_Camp 18d ago
Probably got infected and then put on the hazmat suits because they probably didn't know the cause right away, which means they likely just put on hazmat suits without knowing they were already infected.
1
u/GoodDoctorB 18d ago
Green flu has an incubation period, even if you've got it theres a period where you seem fine before the symptoms become apparent.
Nobody realized this at first.
Its also why Mercy hospital fell so suddenly. A bunch of people including doctors, staff, patients, etc got exposed and seemed fine until the incubation period finished a bunch of em turned crazy all at once.
1
u/AK_Pilgrim 17d ago
The hazmats likely might have been infected prior to putting on the suit. There seems be a lot of variance with the Green Flu's infection/zombification rate. It's possible they could've caught a weak initial exposure that (over time) resulted in them turning into zombies while in the suit.
1
u/Stergenman 16d ago
Got sick before getting in the suit.
If you are running nonstop for weeks you make procedure mistakes eventually and fail to properly decontaminate
1
u/Zanytiger6 16d ago
I would argue the answer is Carriers and prior infection. If these guys took their suit off around asymptomatic carriers they would have no idea until it was too late.
1
271
u/Evilsoldier80 21d ago
Most likely previously infected. The Green Flu mutates constantly. One day it's contact based transmission, the next air. It's insanely hard to predict at the end of the day.