Haven't watched episode 2 yet. On page 36. But regarding the bread/flour theory remember that Tommy was at a bar when "some dude started going crazy" and a fight broke out. Well we know beer is made of yeast which is a type of fungus.
The only issue becomes the use of liquor which Joel drinks, but in the show we only see him drink liquor when using hydros (not sure if that's done purposely).
So it's probably not yeast causing the situation or mabe it is. But if it is, then going west into the bread basket of the country is one stuuupid fukkn idea lol (I know he doesn't know).
they explained it was the yeast
i think the issue a lot of people are missing is that this wasnt just a DAY of people eating products that made them infected - this was something that probably occurred over weeks if not months to spread all around the world ...thats why the professor in Jakarta was so crestfallen and sad - she knew that
1) the world was fukked - if infected grain was in Jakarta that means its been everywhere.....Jakarta is a island in a hard to reach place on the planet
2) what she was seeing the only saving grace would maybe be places that werent population centers that got organized grain deliveries might be safe but anyplace that was a modern city or town ....they were fukked
once the collapse took place there was no distribution of the polluted grain anymore for the infection to pop up someplace - all you had to deal with were the new infections made by those already infected
which is why people are so shook when someone gets infected.