Instead of THE GUBBMINT being evil by LOCKING EVERYTHING DOWN in some scary QUARANTINE ZONE or the like, imagine a “got to build up zombie bite immunity” response, or one with pseudoscientific treatments, or pretty much anything so 
can feel like things are back to normal while zombies are just a thing that continues happening.
Add your own ideas if you like. 
but we haven’t learned any economic or sociopolitical lessons from covid
I think OPs point is that most zombie fiction seems to depict the governmental response as trying and failing to contain it instead of doing nothing
“COVID ate my Neighbors!”
I wrote a short novel like this in the summer of 2020, although this was back when liberals were pretending to care about the pandemic. “Zombies invade a Maine tourist town but nobody notices.”
It’d need a Golden Corral scene, maybe where the chocolate fountain is made slightly more gross because zombie movies are edgy like that, and
dips in anyway after taking some horse paste or something, maybe even taking a smug up-the-nose selfie afterward in the parking lot to send to his 
to stick it to the wokes that are too scared to enjoy things, and immediately afterward, he violently thrashes and goes 
in the cabin of his F-150 and no one notices because it’s only a slight behavior change for him.A movie where the zombified boomer chud is the main character, and acts like a classic violent, mindless, bloodthirsty classic movie zombie, and the only change that people around him notice is that he’s slightly less awful to be around than usual.
“Dad hasn’t said something racist in like 3 whole days… Is something wrong?”
“Yeah I dunno, he didn’t even grab his gun before answering the door today.”
So kinda like the dead rising series, where zombie outbreaks are just a thing that happens, zombies are commercialized via the media and there is a “cure” that only stops the infections for like 24 hours and its super expensive?
I stopped paying attention to zombie slop many years ago because of the sheer chuddery of the fandom and the tiresome edgy gimmicks of it all, so yeah maybe, I dunno.
Scene: An Applebees filled with terrified workers. The North side of the building is being besieged by a mob of angry chuds banging on the windows demanding mediocre cheeseburgers. The South side of the building is being beseiged by zombies banging on the windows. It’s hard to tell the difference between the two mobs
The picture that has haunted my dreams for years now.
hold “x” to rebuild barrier
zombie screening noises
So, just a regular zombie movie. Most of them are dumb assholes who don’t take it seriously.
Do dumb assholes in typical zombie movies actively go out and get bit on purpose for “immunity?” Or lean on fake cures because the vaccines are too woke? Or do they insist they must go to Applebee’s and everyone who doesn’t is a coward and probably a communist?
Have some angry white guy shoot up the doctors trying to cure the zombie virus. Oh wait that’s just the last of us
The idea I’ve always had for a zombie story is actually the only one in which there is a cure for zombification. The thing is, zombies rot and fall apart with time, which means that if and when they get cured, they don’t just regenerate, they come back as disfigured people with zero memories of the time they were zombies, as well as the added stigma of probably having killed and eaten somebody while zombified.
So the whole shtick is how do you reintegrate into society as a former zombie, scarred and treated like a monster, even though you’re just supposed to be a normal dude again? I’m not mature, insightful or wise enough to do that premise justice, but I think it would be real neat in the hands of someone who’s a better writer than I am.
Using my boomer brain I can kind of see this being viewed as an allegory for the treatment of vietnam vets in the US
The movie “the cure” is about there being a, well, cure for zombification. Except they do remember everything they did as a zombie. It’s not bad
Yeah, everything you are suggesting there ; BBC has you covered
I was thinking the same thing. There have actually been a few zombie films/shows that have a similar premise to what joaomarrom was suggesting, at least the part about a cure having been found and former zombies trying to reintegrate back into society. Along with In The Flesh, another one that comes to mind is The Cured which starred and was produced by Elliot Page.
Nice! Never heard of this before, I’ll check it out!
Holy shit, I just had a thought about this a couple days ago. I’m imagining a world where the zombie virus played out like COVID where it came out of China, but they got their shit together and only had like 50,000 deaths. Meanwhile in the United States, chuds are holding parties in their backyards out of spite where they all start biting each other because the government told them not to. By the start of June, Minneapolis looks the same as it did IRL, but for a totally different reason and by August the United States and Canada are completely destroyed
I’ve always liked the idea of a zombie movie where there’s actually a cure and self proclaimed zombie-slayers go nuts
You should watch Life After Beth, it kinda hits some of these points pretty well
