If you guys want to hear my take on it, I think it doesn't matter what's right or wrong in that type of world. The world is jacked up in every sense of the imagination. On top of that, they didn't even at least test their theory first. They just assumed just ripping cordyceps off her would just work. How? Did they hypothesize and test an experiment to prove this? I know it's the post apocalypse and they cant do much. I'm no doctor or biology major but if I'm going to make a theory like that that requires the literal sacrifice of a human life, I would do EXTENSIVE research first because I know everybody would be pissed that it didn't work when Marlene hyped everybody that there was a way to make a cure only for the operation to fail.