So if I volunteer for an infection, and it either hasn't started or the staged I signed up for have just begun, can I put on another skin and bite at the same time? Or do I have to wait between infections or hold off on volunteering to nibble?

the VIP program "does not believe you" if you assert a skin status other than the one you showed up with. You can bite or be infected but not both.

Ah. Good to know for the future, although I wish I'd known that before I signed up for a strain. Still, there's always after this one matures,