It is a surprise to most of us that a virus is not a living organism. Unlike bacteria that are alive, the virus does not biologically meet the criteria of a living organism; having a cell, generating energy, has within itself molecules to sustain itself and does not reproduce.
Although not considered by biologists as alive, the virus can replicate or make a copy of itself, not a new being as in reproduction. You might consider it a carbon copy. Why is that distinction so important? The virus needs a living host to survive, at least a moist environment.
For instance, the COVID19 virus resides in moisture, i.e. small droplets on hard surfaces, in the air and within humans or other animals. They travel the nasopharynx to the target organ, the moist lungs.
Vaccines are the present-day best means of defense by causing the body to increase specific cellular immunity to the specific virus. However, the following should be noted.
“Antiviral drugs do not destroy their target pathogen, but instead they inhibit its progression into the living cell. Designing safe and effective antiviral drugs is difficult because viruses use the host’s cells to replicate. This makes it difficult to find targets for the drug that would interfere with the virus without also harming the host organism’s cells. Moreover, the major difficulty in developing vaccines and anti-viral drugs is due to viral variation.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_drug)
A new anti-viral drug has been discovered that solves the difficulties mentioned in the paragraph above.
This patented drug is called protocatechuic acid or PCA for short and has been issued an US patent # 10,959,969 on March 30, 2021; Methods of treating SARS Cov-2 virus with protocatechuic acid.