Eli5: what exactly is a virus and are viruses alive?
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Imagine if there was a very specific mineral or chemical composition in the wind that if it touched you, would replicate (likely killing you) then, like a force of nature, release itself to spread further.
There is nothing “living” (as we consider it) about a virus, they’re just a set of stable and complex chemicals which together are able to replicate through actual (confirmed-living) organisms.
It’s difficult to say they’re not alive because they do replicate and they are “complex” as opposed to other materials or chemicals, alloys, or compounds, but there’s nothing “active” about them.
My personal thoughts? Not alive, just an extremely unfortunate variable in the grand scheme of biology. But my major was political science and I nearly died in my bio/Ochem courses so consider this a very, very mildly educated opinion
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