Virus questions

[FinallyRetired]

Rich, a couple of questions on viruses.

In this week's sunday supplement, Marilyn vos Savant was asked if, similar to beneficial bacteria, there are any beneficial viruses. She said there aren't any. Never thought about it, but find that surprising. Is that true? (here's your chance to outsmart the person with the alleged highest IQ in the world)

Some vaccines are said to be made with dead viruses. Since viruses are supposed to be neither living nor dead, what does this mean? How are they "killed?""

TIA

 

[donheff]

Beneficial to who? It seems like cowpox is beneficial to us -- we use it to avoid small pox -- but no so nice for the cows.

 

[ERD50]

STR, I wondered the exact same thing - I don't accept ALL of her answers anyhow.

But in that 'unintended consequences' kind of way, I bet that viruses (virii?) do some good - maybe just in the 'cull the weak' kind of way?

Interesting to me that parasites have evolved in such a way as to *not* kill their host. If their host dies, they die. There's a lesson in that for all of us, I think. But I don't want to think about it

-ERD50

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Rich, a couple of questions on viruses.

In this week's sunday supplement, Marilyn vos Savant was asked if, similar to beneficial bacteria, there are any beneficial viruses. She said there aren't any. Never thought about it, but find that surprising. Is that true? (here's your chance to outsmart the person with the alleged highest IQ in the world)

Hmm.

Don't know. Let me poke around a bit.

So much for my IQ