system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is it that some virus' lay dormant in the body and re-surface every so often, causing symptoms (e.g. herpes simplex/ cold sore virus), but others the body can get rid of altogether?

EDIT: Viruses. Derp.
gpt
Because herpes and many other viruses are part of a class that doesn't just infect a cell, highjack its machinery, and forcing it to make copies of itself. No, these little bastards actually write themselves into your genetic code. Which means that whenever cellular conditions are write, a seemingly normal healthy cell can just start making virus bodies spontaneously. A lot of our junk DNA/introns is probably from these accumulated interections over the past few billion years.