Superspreader

In the SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] outbreak, New York forcibly quarantined a man suspected of having the disease after he refused to isolate himself. That's a real breach of liberty, but suppose he had been an irresponsible superspreader like Typhoid Mary and caused the disease to spin out of control?

Another SARS superspreader took the invader by the hand to Singapore's 1,200-bed Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Crowded emergency departments and highly mobile medical staff did the honors with more help from superspreaders. One patient alone infected 24 health-care workers, 15 patients, and 12 visitors. […] It [the SARS-CoV-1 virus] quickly found a superspreader in a dedicated hospital laundry attendant who ignored his diarrhea and pneumonia and doggedly stuck to his duties. The workaholic generated 137 infections among patients, doctors, and nurses.

One of the most notorious superspreaders was Typhoid Mary, an Irish cook who was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever. […] Another well-known superspreader was Gaetan Dugas, considered patient zero for the emergence of HIV in North America; he was a promiscuous homosexual with an estimated 250 partners per annum who remained sexually active until he died at thirty-two years of age.

A major concern is that with both SARS and MERS [Middle East respiratory syndrome], a few patients inexplicably became "superspreaders" who infected huge numbers of other people. At a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, in 2015, one man with MERS transmitted it to 82 patients.

[S]cientists have learned a lot about airborne respiratory fluids and, in particular, what might make someone a superspreader, or superemitter. Certain attributes, such as the shape of one’s body, and certain behaviours, such as loud talking or breathing fast, appear to have a major role in spreading the disease..

In June, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], on behalf of half a dozen detainees housed in various Orange County jails, sued the sheriff in state court, arguing that the jails were superspreaders-in-waiting: the cramped quarters, inadequate cleaning protocols, and severely limited hygiene make jails an ideal hunting ground for the virus.

As school districts around the U.S. continue to grapple with whether to reopen classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, data shows Florida started in-person learning without turning schools into superspreaders.

It [the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference] will be the largest summit ever hosted in Britain. Organizers are scrambling to make sure the conference does not morph into a superspreader event.