The science of superspreading

Why preventing hot spots of transmission is key to stopping the COVID-19 pandemic.

 This Overlooked Variable Is the Key to the Pandemic

There may be many different reasons a pathogen super-spreads. Yellow fever spreads mainly via the mosquito Aedes aegypti, but until the insect’s role was discovered, its transmission pattern bedeviled many scientists. Tuberculosis was thought to be spread by close-range droplets until an ingenious set of experiments proved that it was airborne. Much is still unknown about the super-spreading of SARS-CoV-2. It might be that some people are super-emitters of the virus, in that they spread it a lot more than other people. Like other diseases, contact patterns surely play a part...

 Why The Coronavirus Is So 'Superspready'

A person with a high viral load walks into a bar. That, according to researchers who study the novel coronavirus, is a recipe for a superspreading event — where one person or gathering leads to an unusually high number of new infections. And that kind of occurrence is increasingly considered a hallmark of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

A few superspreaders transmit the majority of coronavirus cases

Whether someone is a superspreader or not will depend on some combination of the pathogen, the patient’s biology and their environment or behavior.

A minority of people with covid-19 account for the bulk of transmission

In two Indian states 10% of people caused 60% of subsequent infections

Do Coronavirus Superspreaders Exist?

Like with almost everything else about COVID-19, much is unknown. If superspreader events are a common source of spread, this might be a hopeful sign for prevention: It suggests that limits on large gatherings may be the most important way to prevent widespread infection.

How large “superspreader” events turned into coronavirus hot spots

This is why large gatherings should be the last normal activity to come back after Covid-19 is contained.

How superspreading is fueling the pandemic — and how we can stop it

“Any one of us could unknowingly be a superspreader.”

How ‘Superspreading’ Events Drive Most COVID-19 Spread

As few as 10 percent of infected people may drive a whopping 80 percent of cases in specific types of situations.

Just Stop the Superspreading

It stands to reason, too, that a highly contagious person is more likely to spread the infection in a crowd (at a wedding, in a bar, during a sporting event) than in a small group (within their household), and when contact is extensive or repeated. Transmission is more likely during gatherings indoors than outdoors. Simply ventilating a room can help.

Super-spreaders: what are they and how are they transmitting coronavirus?

About one in five people transmit infections to far more people than the majority do - why?

Superspreader Events Offer a Clue on Curbing Coronavirus

Some scientists think banning mass gatherings may be enough to keep the pandemic in check.

Superspreaders drive the largest outbreaks of hospital onset COVID-19 infections

SARS-CoV-2 is notable both for its rapid spread, and for the heterogeneity of its patterns of transmission, with multiple published incidences of superspreading behaviour.

What Happens When a Superspreader Event Keeps Spreading

A February conference by the drug company Biogen was initially thought to have infected 99 people. By the end of October, it was feared that the number had grown as high as 300,000.

Why do some COVID-19 patients infect many others, whereas most don't spread the virus at all?

Preventing big clusters of cases would help curb the pandemic, scientists say.

Why the Coronavirus Is More Likely to ‘Superspread’ Than the Flu

Most people won’t spread the virus widely. The few who do are probably in the wrong place at the wrong time in their infection, new models suggest.