Part of the answer depends on what you call 'disastrous'. Economically, a zombie outbreak (curable or not) would result in complete collapse of the global economy as production would essentially grind to a halt. This in turn would create a massive famine as most of the people on the planet are a long way from food production and cities in particular in this scenario should be considered lost as the higher population density means the 'disease' spreads faster and getting resources to high population areas is now next to impossible.

While you say the curing liquid is easy to manufacture, as we've already established this assumes a functioning power grid, a paid, un-hungry workforce who feel secure turning up for work every day; I think you'll find it's actually a lot harder than you think.

Add to that the fact that every person you turn back from zombiedom needs an intensive care regime and (even more importantly) food before becoming an effective member of the community once more. That puts a limit on the number that you can turn back within a given period to a percentage of the surviving (and organised population). Also, one has to assume that it's FAR cheaper to just kill zombies rather than cure them. It's safer, less of a drain on resources for an already struggling community of survivors and doesn't involve complicated traps for collection and curing over time.

The important point here is that what we call civilisation is a far more fragile construct than you might think. Maslow's hierarchy of needs dictates that in such a scenario, your own survival (and the survival of your group) takes precedence over other concerns. This means hoarding food and food production capabilities, establishing a 'safe' perimeter around your sheltered area, and ensuring that everyone contributes to your new community. That means returning to clan based resource collection and management and precludes things like conventional jobs, including medicine (which is now almost impossible to get anyway). That means that threats have to be eliminated (not rehabilitated) in order to protect your clan.

To conclude, a cure would be almost irrelevant. The chances of society as we understand it surviving such an apocalypse is almost zero and the ability (to say nothing of the will) of the new clan based structures that would appear in regional areas to engage in rehabilitation activities would be even less. A cure just isn't practical given how precious essential resources become in this world.

Part of the answer depends on what you call 'disastrous'. Economically, a zombie outbreak (curable or not) would result in complete collapse of the global economy as production would essentially grind to a halt. This in turn would create a massive famine as most of the people on the planet are a long way from food production and cities in particular in this scenario should be considered lost as the higher population density means the 'disease' spreads faster and getting resources to high population areas is now next to impossible. This puts us essentially in a post-apocalyptic scenario.

While you say the curing liquid is easy to manufacture, as we've already established this assumes a functioning power grid, a paid, un-hungry workforce who feel secure turning up for work every day; I think you'll find it's actually a lot harder than you think.

Add to that the fact that every person you turn back from zombiedom needs an intensive care regime and (even more importantly) food before becoming an effective member of the community once more. That puts a limit on the number that you can turn back within a given period to a percentage of the surviving (and organised population). Also, one has to assume that it's FAR cheaper to just kill zombies rather than cure them. It's safer, less of a drain on resources for an already struggling community of survivors and doesn't involve complicated traps for collection and curing over time.

The important point here is that what we call civilisation is a far more fragile construct than you might think. Maslow's hierarchy of needs dictates that in such a scenario, your own survival (and the survival of your group) takes precedence over other concerns. This means hoarding food and food production capabilities, establishing a 'safe' perimeter around your sheltered area, and ensuring that everyone contributes to your new community. That means returning to clan based resource collection and management and precludes things like conventional jobs, including medicine (which is now almost impossible to get anyway). That means that threats have to be eliminated (not rehabilitated) in order to protect your clan.

To conclude, a cure would be almost irrelevant. The chances of society as we understand it surviving such an apocalypse is almost zero and the ability (to say nothing of the will) of the new clan based structures that would appear in regional areas to engage in rehabilitation activities would be even less. A cure just isn't practical given how precious essential resources become in this world.