What is truth? Covid and contagion

I am amazed at the myths that abound in so many areas of life. Some are caused by sheer ignorance. Some come about because people repeat what they hear without checking. Others pass on the myths because they want to support an idea or position that they have taken.

How often people spout complete tosh to convince the gullible and foolish that a certain political position is the correct, and only, one to take (something so many do in social media where they portray lies or things with a grain of truth as 100% fact).

One of the world's largest epidemiological studies yields some interesting facts about the Covid-19 virus:

Social distancing and 'super-spreaders
Researchers tracked down seventy-eight people who had shared a bus or train with one of eight known infected people and sat within three rows of that person for more than six hours. Health workers visited these contacts at their homes to conduct follow-up screenings and determined that nearly 80% of them had contracted the coronavirus.

By contrast, people who were known to be exposed to infected individuals in lower-risk environments — such as being in the same room but more than three feet away — became infected only 1.6% of the time.

“Super-spreading events are the rule rather than the exception, it has lots of implications for modeling COVID, for how to keep places safe.”

The study suggests that super-spreading events are influenced by behaviour — that proximity to an infected person, length of contact and ambient conditions determine the level of risk.

It doesn’t examine whether some infected people spread the virus more efficiently because of biological factors, a question scientists are still trying to answer.

The results could help guide safety measures in places such as gyms, churches and choir practice spaces that have been locations for previous super-spreading events.

Point to note - 1
Social distancing, brief encounters and the environment (ventilation and adequate space, etc.) play an essential part in reducing the likelihood of contracting the virus. The majority of the people observed were wearing masks

Covid-19 and children
The study also found that although children younger than seventeen were the least likely to die of COVID-19, they transmitted the virus at rates similar to the rest of the population, underscoring the idea that the disease doesn’t spare young people.

One data point in particular holds implications for reopening schools: Children ages 5 to 17 passed the virus to 18% of close contacts their own age.

Antonio Salas, a Spanish researcher who has investigated the role of super-spreaders in the pandemic, said the study’s findings regarding children were important in light of “previous reports suggesting a minor role of children in the pandemic.”

“National policies on how to proceed with children in schools and other social activities could change dramatically if the scientific evidence underpins the idea that children can infect as efficiently as adults, and even more, they could also behave as super-spreaders,” said Salas, who was not involved in the India study.

Point to note - 2
Children must not be assumed to play no part in the transmission of this virus. They do contract the disease and they do pass it on - they are not a minor risk and should not be treated as immune from contracting or pasting the virus on.  They are only a minor risk when it comes to mortality!

There's more to this report and if you are interesting in reading more, take a look here:
L A Times - Covid-19 and super-spreaders for a quick read and for a fuller consideration, take a look here: CCDEP study 1/9/20