Like if just one viral particle gets into your system, what’s more likely to happen: it proliferates undetected and cause an infection, or the immune system eliminates it before it can do so?
In: 164
Technically speaking, it only takes 1 virion to get into a cell an cause an infection.
But it is 1 particle floating around in a body, it is unlikely to ever interact with the needed surface proteins to infiltrate a cell, it could just float around forever never interacting, or some active or passive part of the immune system catches it, or the proteins that make up the envelope disassociate and it’s no longer viable.
I like to think of a viral infection like World War 2, storming the beaches of Normandy. Sure, technically you could have 1 guy with all the action movie hero luck take out all of the German army on the beach, but in reality you need large numbers of soldiers, because inevitably some number will not make it. So the smaller the number of soldiers, the less likely they’ll be able to establish a beachhead.
Latest Answers