In this brief essay, we combine biological, historical, philosophical and anthropological perspectives to ask anew the question about the nature of the virus. How should we understand Sars-CoV-2 and why does it matter? The argument we present is that the virus undermines any neat distinction between the natural and the human-made, the biological and the social. Rather, to understand the virus and the pandemic we need to understand both as intimately connected to our own social and historical condition. What started as a reflection on the nature of the virus thus turns into a reflection on the human condition as refracted in this pandemic or an anthropology of the virus.

在这篇简短的文章中，我们结合生物学、历史、哲学和人类学的观点，重新提出有关病毒性质的问题。我们应该如何理解 Sars-CoV-2 以及它为什么重要？我们提出的论点是，病毒破坏了自然与人造、生物与社会之间的任何巧妙区别。相反，要了解病毒和大流行，我们需要了解两者都与我们自己的社会和历史状况密切相关。最初是对病毒性质的反思，因此变成了对在这场大流行或病毒人类学中折射出的人类状况的反思。