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Understanding Viruses

Now, for those of you who are interested in
acquiring a better understanding concerning one of the
worse enemies of your lifetime, thank you for staying
with us through this chapter. Educating yourself about
current disease outbreaks can help you understand what
precautions you should take in order to keep you and
your family safe and healthy.

This will be brief. You may need to read slow, and
you may also need to read these words several times in
order to grasp them.
Since most people confuse viruses with bacteria, and
bacteria with viruses… let’s start out by pinpointing what
a virus really is. In a 2016 Live Science published report,
Aparna Vidyasagar tells us, “Viruses are microscopic
parasites, generally much smaller than bacteria. They
lack the capacity to thrive and reproduce outside of a
host body.” Now, while a virus may not be able to cause
devastation outside of a person or animal, they are able
to latch onto host cells and enter them.

According to David Baltimore in a Michigan State
University lecture, “a virus is made up of a core of genetic
material, either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protective
coat called a capsid which is made up of protein. Sometimes
the capsid is surrounded by an additional spikey coat called
the envelope. Viruses are capable of latching onto host cells
and getting inside them.”

In general, viruses are widely known for being the
driving force behind the spread of infectious diseases. This
has a lot to do with previous deadly outbreaks that resulted
in widespread disease and death.