Where’s the “Virus?”

By Mike Stone via ViroLIEgy Newsletter

The above statement is from prominent virologist Thomas Rivers in a paper he wrote in 1927 critically reviewing the evidence for filterable “viruses.” This statement came before particles as small as the alleged “viruses” could be seen by the electron microscope as it was not invented until 1931, and the technology did not go into wide use until the 1940’s. At the time Rivers wrote this paper, there was no visual evidence for the existence of any “virus.” Virologists would assume that if they passed the fluids of a sick host through a filter that would not allow bacteria to flow through, this action would ensure that only the “virus” particles were present in the aftermath.

However, as noted by Rivers, there was more than just the assumed “virus” in the fluids as they could not obtain a pure sample of only the assumed “viral” particles since aggregates of proteins and particles of degraded cells were said to be present within the fluids after filtration. Thus, it has always been known that there are other host materials and contaminants within these “virus” samples even before they could be properly visualized by electron microscopy. However, there was no evidence that any of the unpurified host materials were ever, in fact, “viruses.”