With the coronavirus on everyones mind, lets go back to some basics. Like what is a virus and how do we get rid of it? Modern medicine seems to cure most anything, so why is it so hard to destroy the coronavirus?

There are three major pathogens (biological structures that can make humans ill). They are bacteria (bacterium), fungi (fungus) and viruses (virus). Each one is unique in its structure and complexity. Therefore, the way to destroy each of them is also unique.

We are exposed to thousands, if not millions, of unique pathogens. Our immune system must learn how to destroy each and every one. When we are born, we have almost no immune system; we are incredibly vulnerable to infection and sickness. We must build up our immune system with antibodies. Antibodies are how the immune system can identify, tag, and destroy the pathogens making a person sick. The only way an immune system can build up antibodies is to be exposed to a pathogen and learn how to identify, tag, and destroy the pathogen. The only shortcut to this is when a mother can pass some antibodies to a nursing infant through her breast milk. (This is only one of the many reasons why a newborn should be breast fed.)

However, once our immune systems have the antibodies needed to identify, tag, and destroy a specific pathogen, it will remember that pathogen. So, the next time you are exposed to it, your immune system will produce the antibodies to destroy the pathogen much quicker, ideally even before you feel sick.

Sometimes our immune systems cannot do it on its own, that is where medicine is required. Remember, there are bacteria, fungal and viral pathogens.

First, fungi tend to be external organisms that live on surfaces. Mold, mushrooms, and mildew are some classic examples and good to use as a reference. They grow in dark, moist places on decaying matter. The hypha or roots burrow into the organic matter to extract the nutrients it needs for life. Athletes foot, jock itch and yeast infections are all common pathogens many of us have suffered. Although, internally fungi are lethal, they are rare. Most external fungi can be destroyed with an anti-fungal cream or pill. Fungi tend to be on the low side of complexity and relatively easy to kill.

Bacterial pathogens are individual living organisms. They are the germs that we think of swimming around under a microscope. There are millions of varieties of them. They live on their own, on surfaces within the air, in foods and water. Many ear, throat, and sinus infections are bacterial. Fortunately, our immune system is pretty good at identifying these foreign organisms living within our bodies and can destroy them on its own. And if it cannot, a doctor can prescribe an antibiotic (penicillin) to finish the job.

On the other hand, viruses are non-living, they are DNA pirates. They cannot live or reproduce on their own. Think of a virus as a blob of grease or oil with a single strand of DNA within it. No nucleus, no organelles, just a microscopic ball of fat with a code to cause some biological mutiny.

Viruses require a host cell for reproduction. The virus does this by taking over a host cell and forcing the cell to reproduce the virus and its fatty shell, much like a pirate hijacking a ship for its own purposes. Unfortunately, the cell will no longer be able to perform the life-sustaining job it was intended to be doing; hence you feel sick. The host cell will continue to perform the pirates task, reproduce the virus, until it destroys itself. Then, liberating more DNA pirates to repeat the process.

The fact that the virus lives inside the cell makes it hard for the immune system to identify the pathogen, let alone destroy it. The only way to destroy the virus is to destroy the cell itself. The pirate will never leave the ship, the ship must be destroyed to kill the pirate.

This is what our immune systems does anti-bodies identify, tag, and destroy the living cells that have the virus within them. This explains our symptoms which can range from minor aches and pains to lethal tissue and organ damage. Your immune system is literally destroying your own cells.

Fortunately, we have billions of cells and our immune system can be very targeted once the anti-bodies have figure out which cells have been pirated by the virus. White blood cells can then effectively destroy only the pirated cells and recovering will begin.

A major problem with the coronavirus in humans is our immune systems have a hard time identifying which cells have been pirated by the virus and which cells are still healthy. Human immune systems seem to be over-reacting and destroying all the surrounding cells. Since the virus is often found in the lungs, heart, and kidneys these are the organs that seem to be suffering the most.

So how do we destroy the coronavirus? They only thing that can destroy a virus is our own immune system. The medical field has had little success in developing anti-viral medications. We can only support our immune system to learn quicker, to produce the antibodies needed and then the immune system can become much more targeted.

Vaccines do this by providing a weakend version for the immune system to learn from. Anti-body therapy takes the anti-bodies from one immune system that has already learned how to identify the virus and directly gives it to an un-learned immune system.

Unfortunately, we do not have any solutions yet! So, the best way to be healthy is to not get sick in the first place. Stay away from the pirates! You all know what to do, washing your hand, social distance, etc. Be safe.

Andrew J. Frisch is a teacher at Farwell High School.

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Column: Biology basics: What is a virus, bacteria, fungus? And how can we kill them? - The Morning Sun