Phage stories

It is hardly surprising that viruses do not have a good press. The very name is derived from the Latin word for a poisonous and perhaps slimy substance. In a medical context, the word originally connoted a putrid excrescence caused by an infectious disease that could transmit the disease to others. The image of viruses as agents apt to spread and cause suffering has been secured in recent times by lethal influenza strains, HIV, and now of course SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that stopped the world.