Does MacOS need antivirus protection?
Most, but not all, Mac virus protection is there to stop Windows viruses being spread further.

That doesn't mean Macs are immune - there are viruses/trojans/malware targeted specifically at Mac users.

Shlayer is a recent example, but not the ony one - check the table on the linked page.

There are also fly-by attacks &amp; social engineering/phishing attacks that you always need to be aware of. Shlayer's attack vector is usually a simple "Your Flash Player is out of date! Click to update." Click to download, click to install &amp; you just invited it in.

After comments…
There is no single authority on which antivirus is best, but there are sites which test [for a fee] various competitors in this field. If you just Google it yourself, you will get a thousand hits pretending to be advice, but actually just sock-puppets selling their own 'solution' with no authority but their own.   

The only authority I know to be 'trusted' is AV-TEST who keep tables of current antivirus products by OS, for business &amp; home users. The most current Mac page is always at https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-macos/.