The scientists do this dance, while admitting that the virus is not even close to a living organism, they still pretend the virus becomes active (read: alive) in our cells.
The idea there is that the virus really is alive but it is dormant until it comes in contact with a human cell; in essence they are calling it a seed pod in the desert that comes upon water.
But a virus is not even close to being anything alive, it does not reproduce, it has no growth, it is a dead piece of RNA wrapped in a protein. It is part of the biomass, so it is being produced by living things, but that does not make it alive, and sure is not a seedpod, it never comes to life, all that ever happens is the human cells produce more of them, the virus proteins never produce more of themselves, they remain nothing more than RNA wrapped in a protein, so they are not reproducing, and scientists never claim they reproduce, but they put out this idea that they take over the mitochondria and produce more of themselves back when they thought the virus was a living organism, and now that they know better, they go right on saying that, it is stupid is what it is.
did you see my top post on this?
What is a Virus? How does it infect you?