There's an ongoing debate, that when the cell is taken over by the virus, at that point the virus is kind of alive. the infected cell is the viruses' living for

There's an ongoing debate, that when the cell is taken over by the virus, at that point the virus is kind of alive. the infected cell is the viruses' living form. 1) The infected cell, is no longer the same as the organism's other cells. If it's a single celled organism, the infected cell no longer the original organism. 2) Once the "infected cell" starts shedding the virus, that's when the virus is alive so to speak. the actual virus microbe thats shedded can be thought as a sex cell of sorts. (Like pollen or mammalian sperm or eggs, etc.) Disclaimer. I'm not a virologist and as far as I know, *most* virologist conclude (last time i checked) that viruses are non-living microbes