The definition of a Virus

The word "virus" is ancient Latin, meaning "slime" or "poison".  Mainstream science admits that most viruses are harmless, yet the word "virus" adds to a biased and highly promoted language of fear regarding nature.  Definitions of viruses range from "pathogenic" to "not usually pathogenic" — the more popular the media source, the more frightening the definition.  Less fearful definitions would change the relationship between the medical industry and its "patients".

Paradoxically, early virus studies considered virus filtrates to be a poison, not a microbe, thus the name virus. Today, we know that viruses are information.