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Comment by nwatson | Hacker News Reader

What I'd really like to know: the approximate total mass of all the COVID-19 viruses/virii that have infected humans since the start of the pandemic; the volume (in a vacuum perhaps) these virii would take up if dumped into a container and given a few shakes. Would they take up a thimble? shot glass? coffee mug? liter bottle? drinks cooler? bathtub? car cabin? back yard swimming pool? olympic pool? Larger? (ChatGPT was just full of excuses on this question. Past searches also turned up nothing.)

Edit: searches

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVgBjRFSMYs - All the World's Coronavirus fits in a Coke Can - Numberphile

I was able to pull this up quickly because I remembered they used a Coke can specifically, which helped zoom in quickly despite the noise in the search results.

Wonder what it'd taste like!

That gets to a classic "xkcd what if" - Pile of Viruses https://what-if.xkcd.com/80/

> What if every virus in the world were collected into one area? How much volume would they take up and what would they look like?

And remember that the images have mouse over text.

Haha, this is awesome! Thank you!

Here's another question... if I drank a spoonful of HIV, would I get HIV? Would it even survive my stomach acid? I suppose it depends on whether it found its way into my blood, right? Or would mere exposure to the mucous membranes in my mouth be enough? You can't, as far as I know, transfer HIV by kissing, but maybe if there was lots of it?

I don't think anyone can answer that concretely, we've never had any virus at that concentration. In general, yes, stomach acid will neutralize most viruses (stomach viruses require specialized and fascinating adaptations to survive), but when you're talking about consuming by the quadrillions or quintillions (or more) particles that only need on the order of several dozens to get lucky and infect you, only a few of them need a lucky journey to get you. The process of swallowing will still end up with them in your throat, some in your mucus membranes in your mouth, nose, and probably your entire sinus system, etc. I wouldn't take that bet. Rates of success we would normally call "non-infectious" would get you in this case.

Awesome, thanks for the link!

Virus is uncountable in Latin, so you can pluralize it however you like. I prefer "viropodes".

"Poison feet"?

"Virus" kinda refers more to the phenomenon of the species as a whole (kinda like how "humanity" refers to all of us, plus people who came before, plus all the stuff associated with us). Likewise "COVID-19" refers to the pandemic, rather than the viral species.

Meanwhile "virion" is the term to refer to the virus particles, so I suppose the most precise/pedantic way to say it would be "all SARS-CoV-2 Virions"?

Guarantee nobody's going to say that.

And I don't necessarily think they should, I just think language is a fun toy. From context it's clear what they meant, I thought it was interesting to find the most precise way of conveying the concept.

I don't think that level of precision is needed for this discussion, except as a "proof of concept" of sorts.

I certainly appreciated the breakdown.

I enjoyed it too, don't get me wrong, but as much as I like playing with the cruft in the (English) language spec, constructions like this are write-only.

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