This prescient quote from one of the most eminent medical scientists of the 20th century, André Lwolf, who was appointed head of the department at the Institut Pasteur in 1938, shines the light on the fundamental problem with modern virology. Virologists today have abandoned even the pretense of looking for a particle that could be called a virus. They are concerned only with finding and studying genetic sequences, either DNA or RNA, whose origins are unknown to them. The sequences come from either unpurified fluids from a sick person or a poisoned and starved tissue culture in a lab — never from an isolated virus. These sequences are used to "prove" the existence of a virus and to create diagnostic tests, despite the absence of any connection to any actual virus. Thanks to Dr. Sam Bailey, co-author of "Virus Mania," for finding this relevant quote.