• Question: are bacteria and viruses the same thing

    Asked by anon-239890 to Struan, Charlotte, Isabel, Douglas, David on 10 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Isabel Cooley

      Isabel Cooley answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      No, they’re different types of microorganism (tiny living thing) and they work slightly differently. Viruses actually don’t fill all the criteria for being alive because they can’t reproduce on their own – they need to infect another living thing’s cells and hijack the systems they have in place for making more cells to make more virus.

    • Photo: Douglas Bray

      Douglas Bray answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      No, they are very different single celled organisms. Viruses are a parasitic organism, this means that they need to invade other cells to survive, often killing the host during the process. Bacteria are larger than viruses and are very common in the human body and most of these don’t cause issues and can benefit people.

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