Stupidity: They say the airline industry was the perfect way to transmit the virus but how would the plane even fly if there was an infected person. In one scene the plane crashed within a minute of an infected person being on it.
Stupidity: Throughout the movie, and especially up on the top of the apartment building before they get rescued at the beginning of the movie, Gerry counts 12 seconds to check if someone has been infected. Just to mention this apartment example, he gets blood on his face and spends more than 12 seconds getting up and to the edge of the roof, plenty of time to become "Zeke." He then counts 12 seconds, as if they would actually matter to his infection.
Chosen answer: The significance of showing the blood drop on Gerry's tongue and him spitting it out was to back up the theory that the only way to become a zombie is to be bitten by one. After the blood touched his tongue he ran to the edge of the building and waited 12 seconds (the time it takes to become a zombie) before he stepped off the ledge. If he would have started to change he was going to attempt to jump off the roof before causing harm to his family.
Then how does the scientist at the WHO get infected from a blood sample?
You can't turn by ingesting, or getting the blood on you. It has to enter your bloodstream. The scientist cut his hand and got zombie blood into his bloodstream.
He stuck himself with an infected needle or a "sharps" tool coated with infected fluids, which cut him.
Blood tester is encased in glass. Dr. Testing did not pay attention. His hand was in the case while it was mixing. Glass broke, cut him, testing blood mixed with his.