Dr Karl

Yeah, that's cool.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Brock.

Well, you can kind of guess by thinking of the virus as kind of a living creature and it wants to have as many babies as possible.

So it's to the benefit of the virus that it spreads itself around before you're fully contagious.

So normally they'll do it one or two days beforehand.

Now, I just have to look this up, but I think that COVID was most infectious, I think, two or three days before.

Influenza about three or four days before.

There are some diseases that will still be very, very infectious after you have the symptoms, but they're in a minority.

But in general, before you've got it, you're spreading it.

I'm sorry.

Isn't that unfair?

But it's good for the virus, though.

And by the way, if you got all of the viruses in the ocean and put them end to end, remarkably frustrating task, but I think it could be done.

It would reach the distance between here and the nearest galaxy, which is the Andromeda Galaxy, two million light years away.

It would reach between here and that galaxy ten times.

Yeah, they're just part of the rich panoply of life.

Thank you, Dr Tyson.

Thank you.

What?