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"Virus" kinda refers more to the phenomenon of the species as a whole (kinda like how "humanity" refers to all of us, plus people who came before, plus all the
by delecti 4y ago
"Virus" kinda refers more to the phenomenon of the species as a whole (kinda like how "humanity" refers to all of us, plus people who came before, plus all the stuff associated with us). Likewise "COVID-19" refers to the pandemic, rather than the viral species.
Meanwhile "virion" is the term to refer to the virus particles, so I suppose the most precise/pedantic way to say it would be "all SARS-CoV-2 Virions"?
- JasonFruit 4y agoGuarantee nobody's going to say that.
- delecti 4y agoAnd I don't necessarily think they should, I just think language is a fun toy. From context it's clear what they meant, I thought it was interesting to find the most precise way of conveying the concept. I don't think that level of precision is needed for this discussion, except as a "proof of concept" of sorts.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoI certainly appreciated the breakdown.
- JasonFruit 4y agoI enjoyed it too, don't get me wrong, but as much as I like playing with the cruft in the (English) language spec, constructions like this are write-only.