Environmental risks: viruses. The border between classical and quantum

Abstract

Viruses are almost-species that need a host in order to replicate their own RNA and survive. They parasitize all kinds of species; in some cases, they do not cause any damage to the host, and on the other hand, in other cases they can cause their death, even indirectly by the damage they end up causing to the immune system. They live in a world that is on the threshold of the classical and the quantum. They can live in a vacuum and without oxygen, but they need the conditions found in our proper world in order to be able to evolve, mutate and survive. Their way of life makes them governed by quantum conditions and only following their laws. This forces us to fight them with the tools of the classical physics, within the quantum world in which they live. This article seeks to find that threshold, and thus better understand what we are facing, and whether the current state of the arts is the right one to provide a satisfactory solution. The cells of living beings have evolved to eject this threat, on many occasions they succumb, and outside help is needed through appropriate prophylaxis in each case. The unstoppable deterioration of the ecosystems around us, mainly due to the imbalance we have introduced in them, makes it easier for viruses to pass from species to species, since the natural hosts, which reduce the viral load, have often disappeared.