> Herpesviruses infect neurons and cause lifelong infections No, you're abusing terminology to exaggerate. Herpes viruses establish dormancy, which is not the

> Herpesviruses infect neurons and cause lifelong infections No, you're abusing terminology to exaggerate. Herpes viruses establish dormancy, which is not the same thing as an active infection. Are the viruses in the cells, somewhere, in low numbers? We don't actually know (your claim about protein expression change and hiding from the immune system is a hypothesis, not a fact). We know that viruses in the family go dormant -- stop causing visible symptoms -- and periodically recur. There's a huge leap from that to "causes long-term neural cell death and disability". > I don’t think we should brush off the possibility of such an infection having long-term neurodegenerative effects (most likely combined with other necessary factors). I'm not saying we should "brush off the possibility". I'm saying that it's a hypothesis, and it needs to be shown to be true before insinuating that it is a known fact.