Covid-19 super-spreading events, in which one person infected with the novel coronavirus transmits it to many other people, play an “outsized role” in the overall spread of the disease, according to a new study which says preventing large gatherings could significantly curb the pandemic.
The study, published in the journal PNAS, assessed about 60 super-spreading events, revealing that events where one person infects more than six other people are much more common than would be expected if the transmission patterns followed statistical distributions commonly used in epidemiology.
Based on their findings, the scientists, including those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, developed a mathematical model of Covid-19 transmission, which they used to show that limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people could significantly reduce the overall number…