Most coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...infections are caused by "superspreaders," which are people who spread the infection to a large number of people, according to a new study carried out by a group of epidemiologists in Hong Kong.
"Approximately 20% of SARS-CoV-2 infections are responsible for 80% of all transmission events in Hong Kong," the researchers noted. The researchers also found that all incidents of spreading occurred indoors. Additionally, the researchers discovered that 70% of those infected did not spread the virus to others.
"Superspreading events are happening more than we expected, more than what could be explained by chance. The frequency of superspreading is beyond what we could have imagined," Ben Cowling, one of the study's co-authors, told Business Insider. ""Now we know which measures might give you the most bang for your buck — if we could stop the superspreading from happening, we'd benefit the most people."
Ok, but what makes a superspreader, and what can we do to find them? Incidentally, does this apply to other diseases, too?
The researchers examined several clusters of infections in Hong Kong, and while there were several causes for the spread of the coronavirus, the manner in which most people were infected with the virus were in certain social events with one person who spread the infection."Overall the majority (51.9%; 539/1,038) of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Hong Kong have been associated with at least one of 135 known clusters," the researchers noted. "The remaining 38.9% (210/539) of cluster cases solely involved imported cases where no onward local transmission could be identified."
Some 1,037 cases which occurred between the time the first confirmed case in Hong Kong on January 23 and April 28 were examined.
The research was published on the website Research Square, a pre-print publication, which means it has yet to be peer reviewed and the results can not be considered conclusive.
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Superspreader: 2020-05-20 ‘Superspreader' events may be responsible for 80 per cent or more of all coronavirus cases
Superspreader: 2020-05-13 How coronavirus gripped the Navajo: More than 3,200 of the 175,000 population are infected and 100 have died after man who attended Tucson basketball game brought in virus and spread it to the community where a THIRD of homes don't have running water
Superspreader: 2020-05-20 ‘Superspreader' events may be responsible for 80 per cent or more of all coronavirus cases
Superspreader: 2020-05-13 How coronavirus gripped the Navajo: More than 3,200 of the 175,000 population are infected and 100 have died after man who attended Tucson basketball game brought in virus and spread it to the community where a THIRD of homes don't have running water