The "nonliving" parasites you're referring to are microscopic, whereas this thing is much, much larger and clearly alive. I think the author meant it was possibly an inorganic life form, or perhaps radically different from life as we know it, actually resembling animate crystal. Either way, I don't think the line should be removed. Revised for clarity, certainly, but it's tough to know what they meant without asking.
SCP-039 is a form of parasite, several inches long at maturity but microscopic at its “larval” or spore stage.
Could also do with a conversion to metric.
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