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There are good and bad bacteria, but are there any good viruses? And what would happen if all viruses disappeared?

Ron Dippold

San Diego, California, US

There are technically no “good” or “bad” viruses or bacteria – they are completely amoral and selfishly work towards reproducing. Like giant corporations, every bacterium (such as E. coli) or virus (such as SARS-CoV-2) would completely engulf Earth if it could, with zero concern for harm done. Because we are also selfish, we just categorise them as “bad” to mean “mostly harmful to us”, “good” for “mostly helpful to us” or “neutral”.

There are many …