Super Spreading

Super Spreading

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The ways that dictionaries define compound terms—those made up of more than one word—have evolved over the years. In general, however, one constant guiding principle for lexicographers goes as follows: if a compound term can be easily understood from the definitions of the individual parts of the term, then it needn’t have its own definition: a wine glass , for example, is a glass for wine. A bicycle helmet is a helmet worn while riding a bicycle. Cranberry juice is juice made from cranberries.
By contrast, opera glass and blue helmet are far from self-explanatory. And orange and juice are two words so commonly found next to each other that they merit the confirmation of a dictionary entry. (This last entry is a relatively recent one for us; the lack of space restrictions in an online dictionary is one of the reasons that such policies have evolved over time.)
It’s probable that most readers would understand the term super-spreader in context, and some subtleties (is it “one that excels at spreading” or “one that spreads a great amount”?) don’t interfere with understanding the general gist. We define it this way:
: an individual who is highly contagious and capable of transmitting a communicable disease to an unusually large number of uninfected individuals
This term, though by no means brand new, gained fast currency during the past year’s pandemic, and super-spreader was added to our online dictionary in the first weeks of the crisis . The term’s medical specificity and high frequency were good reasons to add it, even though it might have seemed self-explanatory in preceding years.
Another rationale for adding a compound term to the list of dictionary entries is the frequent use of a figurative meaning that is not self-explanatory: think of apple-pie when used to refer to something that seems typically American. When apple-pie refers to something that is not dessert, it requires a definition.
And, just as viral has gone from referring to diseases to referring to ideas, memes, stories, and social media postings, super-spreader is now also being used in contexts other than disease, to refer to someone or something that presents usually harmful ideas that are influential, shared widely, or often repeated. Unsurprisingly, this use is usually a pejorative one, referring to ideas that are not wholesome or (literally or figuratively) healthy. These uses have been around since before the pandemic:
The study's point is not that individuals with narrow thespian skills like Kim Kardashian and Honey Boo Boo do succeed, but rather that selfish, self-aggrandizing, vain people, aka narcissists, are over-represented on TV and social media-because they love drama, perform well in public and obsessively groom their image. Such personalities have been dubbed " super-spreaders " and are said to transmit narcissism like a virus. — Jessica Seigel, Pacific Sun (Mill Valley, CA), 20 June 2014
It's also not a surprise that, like viral , this term is frequently found in contexts connected to social media:
As previously stated, certain Facebook users were more influential than others, and a subset of that group were " super spreaders " connected to other highly influential people. — Misty Harris, Alaska Highway News (Fort St. John, BC), 9 Aug. 2012
These heavily connected nodes, sometimes referred to as super-spreaders in epidemic literature, play a crucial role in the severity of the epidemic spread. Due to the process by which new users prefer to connect with existing, popular users, a preferential attachment model might be more suited to replicating a Twitter network. — Michael Piserchia, A statistical analysis and modeling of information diffusion across online social networks (Diss.), 2015
It's probably true that since the pandemic began, there has been an increase in this kind of usage. It stands to reason that a term that has become heavily used in its literal meaning become more frequently encountered in its figurative meaning:
Amid a hotly contested U.S. presidential election and the coronavirus pandemic, how is Facebook responding to criticism that the social media giant has become a superspreader of political and medical misinformation? — USA Today , 23 Sept. 2020
But Trump has been a super-spreader in a different sense for many, many years—a super-spreader of disinformation. — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic , 3 October 2020
This will be Mr. Zuckerberg’s sixth appearance in front of Congress, and the 36-year-old is now well accustomed to making a pitch about how his social network—the world’s largest—is a force for good. Forget that Facebook is a veritable superspreader of disinformation and confusion across the internet. — Mike Isaac, The New York Times , 17 November 2020
And not just her, of course, but everything she's touched: two other producers jumped ship from "Trickster" shortly after Latimer's resignation, properly concluding that the whole show has become a super-spreader of cancel-culture cooties. — National Post (Toronto, Canada), 29 December 2020
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Home Open Access News Health & Social Care News COVID-19: The truth about super-spreaders

Freelance Health Writer, BM MRCGP FFSRH DRCOG Dip GUM
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President Biden’s inauguration was an exemplary event, efficiently staged with careful social distancing, and masks were worn by all who attended. I admired the forethought, telling the public to stay away and to represent them instead, with 200,000 American flags. What an awe-inspiring, responsible, and kind act, on behalf of the new president and his team, who have vowed to make the control of the COVID-19 pandemic their number-one task. A stark contrast to the shambles of the super-spreader Rose Garden event last summer at the White House where no restrictions were in place, and 34 attendees, became infected.
The term ‘super-spreader’ has become a catchword in the current COVID pandemic. But what does it mean?
Here’s a definition. One person infected with COVID-19 will usually infect around three other people (ECDC May 2020 ). A super-spreader is someone who infects more than this number of people. Super-spreaders are highly infectious. Most super-spreaders are unaware they are infected and pass the virus on unknowingly.
A super-spreader event is an occasion, where a gathering of people leads to an outbreak of infections, which may have arisen from just one infected attendee.
Super-spreader events are serious as they result in clusters of cases within the community. Here are a few examples –
Why is that some people spread large quantities of virus, whereas other spread very little or not at all? Are there specific characteristics of a super-spreader?
The viral load is the number of viral particles in each millilitre of blood ( WHO ). The viral load is more likely to be high if the recipient became infected by inhaling respiratory droplets from another super-spreader – which also contained a high viral load. This high viral load means large numbers of virus organisms are actively replicating at the same time, increasing viral shedding, and increasing infectivity.
High viral loads are usually associated with more severe disease. They also often result in a stronger immune response compared to someone infected with a low or moderate number of viral organisms.
Those infected with a high viral load are more likely to be admitted to hospital. Although this takes them out of the community setting and stops them from spreading the virus locally, they are at a higher risk of infecting other patients, and hospital staff. In the UK ( May 2020 ), around 3% of NHS staff tested positive to COVID-19, yet most of them were unaware they were infected.
In any pandemic, 20% of the population spread 80% of the infections. This is true for the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a study from Hong Kong ( September 2020 ), using contact tracing data from 1,038 COVID-19 patients, 19% of cases had seeded 80% of infections. The authors identified between four and seven super-spreader events, resulting in 51 clusters of cases. These super-spreader events took place in family gatherings, bars, live music settings, weddings, and other social events, and at a temple. In 42% of clusters, infections had been acquired overseas.
The authors did not find that reducing the time between symptom onset and confirming a positive diagnosis, reduced the rate of transmission. This is probably because the infection is most infectious before symptoms develop.
Many people remain unaware they are most infectious early in the infection before symptoms ever develop. Throat swabs taken from the time of initial transmission show that viral loads are highest in the two to three days before symptoms occur. It’s also human nature to be in denial and think it won’t happen to you. 44% of new cases arise due to asymptomatic spread.
This is called the dispersion effect. If K is at infinity, everyone is passing the virus to the same number of people, meaning the R number and the K number are the same.
Where there is great variability in the number of people who are infected, the K number gets closer to 0. COVID-19 is thought to have a K number of 0.19.
Having a low K value might be a good thing if only we could identify in advance, who was a super-spreader. At present, we can’t do this, but we do know that super-spreaders spread the virus in places where people are crowded together, where there is poor ventilation, and where people are breathing heavily, singing, or shouting. This underlies the current advice to stay at home.
In December 2020, a new variant of the COVID-19 virus – known as variant 202012/01 – was identified. Worryingly, this new strain is on the increase.
Scientists at Imperial College, London examined 275,000 COVID tests taken late in 2020. From this data, they calculated that as after the November lockdown in England, although numbers of cases of the original COVID-19 virus declined, there was an increase in the numbers of cases of the new variant. They calculated that variant 202012/01 was 50% more transmissible than other variants .
Very recently, evidence has become available suggesting this new strain may have higher mortality. If super-spreaders, super-spread the new variant, this will be highly detrimental to controlling the pandemic.
In a 2020 Brazilian study from São Paulo , the authors investigated the environmental and social factors associated with the spread of COVID-19. Higher rates of COVID infection were demonstrated in association with areas of increased population density.
Lower rates of COVID infection were associated with:
These findings confirm the advice to stay at home – avoid crowds and crowded areas. They also show that COVID-19 infection is likely to be easier to control in the warmer summer months, than in the winter.
Much research has been undertaken, examining the details of viral transmission. The COVID-19 virus is passed in droplets of respiratory mucous and saliva emanating from the mouth and nose.
Saliva and mucous vary in consistency – they can be watery and thin, or thick and viscous. On coughing or sneezing, thin, watery secretions are likely to travel further. Genetic differences affecting the quality and quantity of saliva and mucous may help or hinder the transmission of infection. Sneezing with a blocked nose can increase the distance of mucous spray, by 60%.
Individual genetic variations may make viral infection or transmission more likely by other means. For example, differences in the ACE-2 gene alter the ability of the COVID-19 virus to attach to the receptor and invade the cell. The presence of the TMPRSS2 gene, a gene associated with prostate cancer, has been linked to more severe COVID disease. The presence of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) A, B, and C has been noted in those with more severe COVID infection.
A 2020 Swiss study calculated that the cough of a super-spreader fills a room quickly with an incredible 7.4 million copies of the coronavirus for every cubic meter of air. Breathing heavily, shouting, or singing will increase the viral load further.
Wearing a mask reduces the chance of becoming infected with COVID-19 – to only 3%. This was the finding of a large meta-analysis published in The Lancet (June 2020) which reviewed 172 observational and 44 comparative studies on the use of face masks in preventing the spread of infection. To quote the authors of the Swiss study, “it boggles the mind why people are so resistant to wearing a mask.”
Yet 35% of the UK population are still not wearing masks . Failing to wear a mask has been linked to anti-social personality traits such as callousness, deceitfulness, hostility, manipulativeness and risk-taking, and a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).
The super-spreader, on one hand, is an innocent perpetrator as for the most part, they are unaware they are infected and are transmitting infection. However, now we know super-spreaders exist, ignorance is not an excuse.
Who are the super-spreaders? The characteristics of the super-spreader are set out in Box 1 . Any one of us could be a super-spreader, a very hard fact to bear on our conscience. Control of the pandemic depends largely on not allowing ourselves to become super-spreaders, as well as protecting ourselves from the invisible super-spreaders, already at large in the community.
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Characteristics of a COVID-19 super-spreader
Highly efficient at spreading the virus
Practice social/behavioural interactions facilitating spread at different locations
Aided by new viral strains with increased infectivity
Increased viral spread due to more favourable environmental conditions
Genetic variations may favour their ability to transmit the virus
May be unwilling to comply with restrictions or wear face masks

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May 15, 2020 / 3:05 PM
/ CBS News

A recent investigation showed that dozens of people were infected with the coronavirus during what is known as a "super-spreading" event. After a choir practice in Washington state in March, 52 out of 61 attendees became ill, 32 of whom were confirmed to have COVID-19 and 20 had symptoms consistent with the virus, according to Skagit County Public Health .
The investigation determined that only one person at the practice had "cold-like symptoms" beginning a few days prior to the practice. That individual was later confirmed to have COVID-19, Skagit County Public Health said.
The choir practice is not the only super-spreading event that has happened during the coronavirus pandemic, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the potential for these events "underscores the importance" of social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.
Here's a breakdown of what these events are and how they happen.
Super-spreading events "occur when a single person infects a large number of other people — sometimes 10, 20, sometimes even more in one setting," said Dr. Justin Lessler, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Other examples of super-spreading events during the coronavirus pandemic include 15 cases stemming from one person at multiple family gatherings in Chicago and more than 100 cases tracing back to multiple South Korean nightclubs that were visited by a man who later tested positive for the virus. The term "super-spreader" refers to a person who spreads a disease to a large number of people.
"It's kind of different for different diseases whether it's a person or an event, but for COVID, it would be more like an event," said Dr. Jaline Gerardin, an assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The "world's most famous super-spreader" was Mary Mallon, known as "Typhoid Mary," Lessler said. She infected many people with typhoid fever over several years in the early 1900s.
These events happen because of "a combination of biology and setting," Lessler said.
An infected person has to be at a point in their illness when they are very transmissible and they have to be in a place where they can infect a lot of other people.
Places where people are densely packed and engaging in something that involves a lot of breathing, like singing or talking, are particularly risky for super spreading , Gerardin said.
Yes, the person could be asymptomatic or presymptomatic, the doctors said.
"They may not feel sick, but the infection has spread enough in their body that they're shedding virus and they're putting enough virus out there to infect other people," Lessler said.
Doctors have said they believe the number of people that one person with coronavirus typically infects is two to three. That number, however, is considered "over-dispersed," Lessler said.
"When we say over-dispersed, what we mean is there are super-spreading events, so the average might be two, let's say, but most people are infecting one or no people and then a very few people are infecting 8 to 10 or even more people," he said.
The number of typical infections also varies by the density of an area and whether or not people are staying home.
The social distancing guidelines many places have adopted help reduce super-spreading events, the doctors said.
"We can either prevent them entirely by limiting th
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