This is a test. It is a test of the immune system, one of innumerable exams administered by the School of Life. It’s a rough school. Expulsions are permanent.
Each test passed, however, allows the next one to be prepared for with greater ease. So there’s no use calling in sick to the test; sooner or later, we all have take it. It’s best to prepare, by knowing what sorts of questions are likely to be on the test, and how to answer them.
A virus is a test of immune fitness, a primary mechanism of evolutionary action. When a population of deer expand to overtake their habitat, wolf packs also grow and maintain equilibrium. Without significant predators in the macrosphere, it falls to the microbes to carry out this natural function. These microbes are part of how the immune system came to be as it is: challenge, response.
Unsuccessful responses are flunked and do not advance. It’s hardly fair, and often arbitrary. Some fail because they didn’t prepare. Others because they have poor memory. Notwithstanding the parasites who manufactured this particular bioweapon, infection is a test conferred by nature on the immune system.
Before a big test, some students study up and learn everything they’ll need to pass. Others accept the offer of a scam artist in the hall selling the cribbed answers, and only when they receive a failing grade will the ones who used a cheat-sheet realize: those answers are from last year, in the wrong order, and for only some of the questions.
It will be too late. There can be no make-up exam.
A well told tale, both metaphorical and allegorical.