One of the widely-discussed metrics for understanding Covid-19 transmission is its R0 number - the average number of infections that a given person causes. An R0 of 3, for example, means that each person infects an average of 3 others. In order to stop the disease from eventually spiraling out of control you need to keep the R0 number at or below 1. But of course R0 represents an average - and a recent write-up in Science elaborates on the emerging evidence that a relatively small number of cases account for most of the spread. Understanding why that is could of course go a long way toward making it possible to restore some sense of normalcy, even if figuring this out is incredibly difficult.
One thing that does appear to be the case is that indoor transmission is more likely than outdoor, and that mixing large numbers of people together in small spaces is a bad idea. That's why Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, writes in the CHE that the desire to have in-person college in the fall is nonetheless a bad idea.
On the other hand, a group of German medical organizations just issued a statement advocating the immediate and full return of K-12 schools. There is some nuance - older kids can do some social distancing, and there is an assumption of testing and contact-tracing - but they summarize quite a bit of research saying that there is little evidence that outbreaks occur in groups of kids, and some evidence that kids don't readily transmit the disease. We are all about to owe France and Germany, which are both competent at testing and are gradually reopening schools, a debt for better understanding how Covid transmits among kids.
In the meantime, the dishes here keep piling up and the racist sociopath pretending to be President is deporting children who aren't sick cuz the #MexicanCaravanWuhanOBAMAChinaWTOFAKENEWS is obviously the reason 93,000+ Americans have died! But that's ok, because we have done lots of tests, very good tests, and "per capita" is one of those phrases that libtards use to confuse you with their elitism.
Recent Comments