A very informative article looking at the importance of super-spreaders in the transmission of covid through a population. As much as 80% of new infections seem to be spread by only 20% of the people. The super-spreader dynamics are not new - it’s been observed since February - but they are not accounted for in our public health responses.
Good discussions of Japan and Sweden, and a pretty thorough overview of how this is different to the way influenza spreads. It also talks about the importance of forward and backward contact tracing efforts in managing the spread.
Also another interesting data point on mask wearing:
Take the highly publicized case in Springfield, Missouri, in which two infected hairstylists, both of whom wore masks, continued to work with clients while symptomatic. It turns out that no apparent infections were found among the 139 exposed clients (67 were directly tested; the rest did not report getting sick).
(emphasis added)
I wonder how many of those clients ended up with antibodies, despite showing zero signs of the illness?