Potential Misconceptions
Due to the heavy presence of viruses and virus-related terminology in media and pop culture students may harbour a surprising number of misconceptions regarding viruses. These misconceptions can be grouped into two major categories so that the subsections of each category share similar conceptual fixes:
1) Life versus Non-life
a) Misconception: Viruses are living things.
It is astonishing to find out how many students not only assume viruses are living things, andthat they harbour a sort of malevolent intelligence (the viruses, not the students). The recent bumper crop of Hollywood zombie movies in conjunction with insidious malware and computer "viruses" have left many students with the impression that viruses actively "seek" hosts and alter them to their own nefarious ends.
b) Misconception: Viruses and Bacteria are effectively the same thing.
An easy misconception to come by, seeing as any experience a student may have with viruses would surely be of the anecdotal variety, most likely an illness that was symptomatically no different from any bacterial infections the student may have had in the past. A student may know that bacteria are living organisms, leading to the next misconception:
c) Misconception: Viruses can be "killed."
The concept of nonlife is an incredibly tricky thing to grasp. Many students absolutely refuse to believe that the thing that made them so ill in the past wasn't even alive. Students will also likely make no distinction between antibacterial and antiviral medication.
d) Misconception: Viruses cannot exist in "clean" environments.
Another misconception linked to bacteria. Endless commercials for products that "kill" up to 99% of all "germs" do much to spread this misconception.
Solutions - this category of misconceptions can be dealt with by a detailed explanation of:
· Viral anatomy - with specific focus being the relative simplicity of the viral particle. Be sure to stress there is little to a virus beyond the protein capsid and the DNA or RNA it houses. The idea of viruses as Non-living organisms will be easier to teach if you remind students that DNA is an inert molecule, and is therefore not alive.
· How vaccination works - again stressing a vaccine does not "kill" a virus, it merely primes your body to recognize viral particles as they invade. To really drive the point home one may wish to explain the difference between antibacterial and antiviral medicines and how they operate.
· Fundamental differences between Bacteria and Viruses - Be sure to give a sense of scale, and stress how bacteria are living organisms capable of reproducing autonomously. Teaching bacteriophages usually clears this misconception up nicely, though one should be careful to stress that they do not literally "eat" bacteria.
2) Mode of Infection
a) Misconception: All viruses operate the same way within the host.
Students know viruses make you sick, but they rarely know exactly how. They ultimately assume all viruses work the same way once they enter your body.
b) Misconception: Viruses are not host specific.
Connected to the previous misconception, many students are not aware that viruses can have very narrow host ranges. Reports of avian and swine flu, SARS, and the West Nile viruses, as well as pop mythology around the origins of HIV often leave the student with the impression that a virus can infect anything it pleases.
c) Misconception: Viruses can be transmitted through any medium.
Television is largely to blame for this misconception, as the virus is often portrayed, for the sake of increased drama, as a semi-magical, unstoppable, malevolent killing force.
Solutions - this category of misconceptions can be dealt with by a detailed explanation of:
· Viral replication cycles - the difference between the lytic and lysogenic cycles will do much to clear up misconceptions regarding the nature of a viral illness, while reinforcing the concept that the viral particle does not fulfill the qualifications for a living organism.
· Host range and tissue specificity - this will clear up misconceptions in much the same way as the solution above. It may be necessary to explain how viruses may mutate and "jump the species barrier," but again, it should be stressed that such mutations are completely random and not in any way "willed" by the virus.
· Vectors of transmission - this will clear up misconceptions in much the same way as the solution above, as well as the last vestiges of the "malevolent force" theme present in Category 1.
1) Life versus Non-life
a) Misconception: Viruses are living things.
It is astonishing to find out how many students not only assume viruses are living things, andthat they harbour a sort of malevolent intelligence (the viruses, not the students). The recent bumper crop of Hollywood zombie movies in conjunction with insidious malware and computer "viruses" have left many students with the impression that viruses actively "seek" hosts and alter them to their own nefarious ends.
b) Misconception: Viruses and Bacteria are effectively the same thing.
An easy misconception to come by, seeing as any experience a student may have with viruses would surely be of the anecdotal variety, most likely an illness that was symptomatically no different from any bacterial infections the student may have had in the past. A student may know that bacteria are living organisms, leading to the next misconception:
c) Misconception: Viruses can be "killed."
The concept of nonlife is an incredibly tricky thing to grasp. Many students absolutely refuse to believe that the thing that made them so ill in the past wasn't even alive. Students will also likely make no distinction between antibacterial and antiviral medication.
d) Misconception: Viruses cannot exist in "clean" environments.
Another misconception linked to bacteria. Endless commercials for products that "kill" up to 99% of all "germs" do much to spread this misconception.
Solutions - this category of misconceptions can be dealt with by a detailed explanation of:
· Viral anatomy - with specific focus being the relative simplicity of the viral particle. Be sure to stress there is little to a virus beyond the protein capsid and the DNA or RNA it houses. The idea of viruses as Non-living organisms will be easier to teach if you remind students that DNA is an inert molecule, and is therefore not alive.
· How vaccination works - again stressing a vaccine does not "kill" a virus, it merely primes your body to recognize viral particles as they invade. To really drive the point home one may wish to explain the difference between antibacterial and antiviral medicines and how they operate.
· Fundamental differences between Bacteria and Viruses - Be sure to give a sense of scale, and stress how bacteria are living organisms capable of reproducing autonomously. Teaching bacteriophages usually clears this misconception up nicely, though one should be careful to stress that they do not literally "eat" bacteria.
2) Mode of Infection
a) Misconception: All viruses operate the same way within the host.
Students know viruses make you sick, but they rarely know exactly how. They ultimately assume all viruses work the same way once they enter your body.
b) Misconception: Viruses are not host specific.
Connected to the previous misconception, many students are not aware that viruses can have very narrow host ranges. Reports of avian and swine flu, SARS, and the West Nile viruses, as well as pop mythology around the origins of HIV often leave the student with the impression that a virus can infect anything it pleases.
c) Misconception: Viruses can be transmitted through any medium.
Television is largely to blame for this misconception, as the virus is often portrayed, for the sake of increased drama, as a semi-magical, unstoppable, malevolent killing force.
Solutions - this category of misconceptions can be dealt with by a detailed explanation of:
· Viral replication cycles - the difference between the lytic and lysogenic cycles will do much to clear up misconceptions regarding the nature of a viral illness, while reinforcing the concept that the viral particle does not fulfill the qualifications for a living organism.
· Host range and tissue specificity - this will clear up misconceptions in much the same way as the solution above. It may be necessary to explain how viruses may mutate and "jump the species barrier," but again, it should be stressed that such mutations are completely random and not in any way "willed" by the virus.
· Vectors of transmission - this will clear up misconceptions in much the same way as the solution above, as well as the last vestiges of the "malevolent force" theme present in Category 1.