The biology of viruses is such that, scientifically, it is unknown whether they are alive or not. See Wikipedia for an overview of the virus. They have some of the characteristics of life-forms, but not all. They are sub-microscopic things that infect larger things, that is, plants or animals, even bacteria. Essentially, a virus is genetic material, a string of DNA or RNA molecules. They are free-floating genomes loose in the world and we know that the genome is powerful stuff, structuring and ordering cells. Cells are the basic units of biology.
A virus cannot replicate on its own, it needs cells to do that. It enters and takes over cells, forcing cells to manufacture many, many copies of itself. What is going on here? Here is my answer: a virus is a refugee from dead, extinct life-forms, maybe dinosaurs, maybe long-dead protozoa, perhaps even extraterrestrial. They are stranded in the world, survivors of their original cells and are trying to recreate paradise, i.e., the primal organism they once powered. The midichlorians of Star Wars are like unto real-world viruses. The midichlorians mediate a 'Force' that gives purpose to intelligent life. Viruses like the SARS-CoV2, exert force on living things. Is this force good or bad?
An answer to this last question should not be easy, but should require not only scientific analysis, but philosophic, as well. The easy answer would be viruses are bad; this is the common approach and also the medical view. Viruses have been causing problems, uncomfortable, unwanted symptoms in people for millenia, though our discovery of the virus (Latin: poison) dates to the nineteenth century. Yet viruses also have good results or outcomes in species. Check out Charles Zimmer and his book. So we have to consider that viruses are good and bad, from a practical standpoint.
A virus is an agent of change. It changes living matter in an orderly process according to its memory of an original state. Its original state, some long-dead creature, is not compatible with recent life-forms, but a virus doesn't know that. Its original, primal state, its long-gone context is not known to us. It demands study and fully understanding the virus will tell us something radical about life in the cosmos.
Ask why change persists in the universe. Why do things change and not stay the same?
