So can some of you doctors, scientist, researchers, etc. help me out here.
I have been doing a lot of reading lately as I suppose many people have but it ends up being either the same basic stuff or too science heavy.
I have always thought that a virus would morph, mutate, whatever layman's term might apply.
I've read articles where Iceland has found versions of the current virus... I don't even want to use the name because one name is a virus and one is disease. I'm sure you know what I mean.
I have always thought that a virus by nature was pretty much morphing or mutating for reasons unknown. That we adapt to some, some mutate and get worse or mutate and get less harmful. Various versions of a head cold so to speak.
When I look at this https://nextstrain.org/ncov I can't honestly say I understand it, but it looks like the far right dots are showing the various mutations of a single entity ( virus or disease )
Now I am being told that a virus never weakens. It is a static entity. It's not even alive. ???
Can someone explain to me in laymans terms what I am missing here?
As a secondary question. I have been told that hand sanitizer is not a good defense against a virus but is against a bacteria. So I feel like my confusion is related to that comment as well.
If a virus is not alive, exists in a static state, what does the hand sanitizer do?
I guess the short story is, what is a virus and what is it's typical existence? The analogy I was given was polio will always be polio, smallpox always smallpox and they will not weaken. Which makes sense too.
Is there any way to explain this in layman's terms? I have come to realize I have no idea what a virus is.
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