‘Super spreaders’ of coronavirus may be among us, experts say. What does that mean?
Some people, known as “super spreaders,” could infect others with coronavirus at higher rates, health experts say.
A “super spreader” is someone who infects more people with a disease than the average person does. Although other infectious diseases, like SARS in 2003, have had “super spreaders,” little is known about their role in the coronavirus pandemic.
Coronavirus is believed to spread mainly through close person-to-person contact and through the respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, the CDC says, but since it’s a new virus, health officials are still learning exactly how it’s transmitted.
However, health experts believe the virus does have “super spreaders,” media outlets report.
Earlier in the year, a British man was identified as a super spreader after he was infected with COVID-19, likely while in Singapore, then spread the virus to 11 other people in multiple countries, The Washington Post reported.
More recently, a Biogen conference was held in Boston and is believed to be the source of most of the coronavirus cases in Massachusetts. Of the 138 cases in the state, 104 are linked to the conference, the Boston Globe reports.
The conference appears to be a “super-spreading episode,” Nicholas Christakis, a Yale professor, told WBUR.
But experts still aren’t exactly sure how super spreading works in the coronavirus pandemic.
During the 2003 SARS outbreak, a “super spreader” was classified as someone who directly infected at least 10 people, the CDC says. Five people were identified as such.
Health experts believe a coronavirus patient will directly infect between 1.5 and 3.5 people, CNBC reports, but it’s unclear what the threshold is for someone to be considered a super spreader.
Additionally, there are still a lot of unknowns about how someone becomes a super spreader.
It could have to do with the person’s immune system, the strand of the virus they get or just the places they go, CNBC reports.
The “phenomenon” could be the “result of a combination of host, environment, and virus interactions,” the CDC says.
This story was originally published March 15, 2020 at 1:27 PM with the headline "‘Super spreaders’ of coronavirus may be among us, experts say. What does that mean?."
