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Salon
Salon
Science
Matthew Rozsa

HISTORICAL FACTS: Are viruses alive - The Untold Story

Salon Jason Shepherd

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may make it difficult to perceive viruses as anything other than agents of destruction, the mundane truth is that viruses are barely even living things. In fact, some biologists — most, even — do not believe that they actually count as living things.

How can this be so? After all, viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, seem to have a horrifically efficient mechanism for reproducing themselves, suggesting they have a will to live. How could something with such a will to live not be — well — alive? 

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