>>11472694The main quality of life that viruses are missing is resting metabolic activity: even when cells aren't reproducing or responding to a stimulus, they're always processing nutrients and internal signals.
There might be some exceptions, but viruses do basically nothing when they're not in the process of infecting a cell. The distinguishing factor between so-called "live" and "dead" viruses is, to my knowledge, whether they've retained enough structure and functioning enzymes to infect cells. Correct me if I missed something
