superspreader

plural superspreaders · alternative super-spreader · alternative super spreader

1. epidemiologyA person infected with a pathogen who is responsible for spreading it to many other people.

   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.

   2020 January 24, Denise Grady, “Chicago Woman Is Second Patient in U.S. with Wuhan Coronavirus”, in The New York Times, published 25 February 2020 (updated), →ISSN, archived from the original on 01 Nov 2021

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   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?

   2003 May 2, Nicholas D. Kristof, “Lock ’Em Up”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2021

   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.

   2006, Andrew Nikiforuk, “Nemesis: The Global Hospital”, in Pandemonium: Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease, and Other Biological Plagues of the 21st Century, Toronto: Viking Canada, →ISBN, page 230

   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.

   2008, Peter J. Hudson, Sarah E. Perkins, Isabella M. Cattadori, “The Emergence of Wildlife Disease and the Application of Ecology”, in Richard S. Ostfeld, Felicia Keesing, Valerie T. Eviner, editors, Infectious Disease Ecology: The Effects of Ecosystems on Disease and of Disease on Ecosystems, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 358

   [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..

   2020 October 29, Fedor Kossakovski, “Why Some People Are Superspreaders and How the Body Emits Coronavirus”, in National Geographic, Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 Oct 2021

   Synonyms: superinfector

2. alsoattributiveepidemiologyAn event or place which leads to the spread of an infectious disease to many people.

   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.

   2021 October 28, William Booth, “30,000 People Gather for a Climate Summit in a Pandemic. What Could Go Wrong?”, in The Washington Post, Washington, DC, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 Oct 2021

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   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.

   2020 December, Laura Thompson, “Southern California Jails Have Become COVID Superspreaders”, in Mother Jones, San Francisco: Foundation for National Progress, →ISSN, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2021

   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.

   2021 March 17, Arian Campo-Flores, “Florida Schools Reopened Without Becoming Covid-19 Superspreaders”, in The Wall Street Journal, New York: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, archived from the original on 17 Oct 2021

   Millions of football fans without masks have been going to games, cheering for their pro, college, high school teams. Now, at the start of the season, many epidemiologists strongly advised against this. They worried that games could become superspreaders.

   2021 October 30, Scott Simon, Wade Goodwyn, “Football Fans Are Packing into Stadiums Without Masks, but It Hasn’t Been an Issue”, in NPR, archived from the original on 02 Nov 2021

3. broadlyA person or thing responsible for the widespread distribution of something regarded as dangerous or undesirable (for example, misinformation).

   But whether they intend it or not, celebrities, politicians and others with large online followings can be superspreaders – not of the coronavirus but of dangerous or false information.

   2020 July 1, Shira Ovide, “Bogus Ideas Have Superspreaders, Too”, in The New York Times, published 2 July 2020 (updated), →ISSN, archived from the original on 23 Jul 2021

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   "We have also imposed penalties on nearly two dozen additional Pages, groups or accounts linked to these 12 people," Facebook said in a blogpost titled "How we're taking action against vaccine misinformation superspreaders".

   2021 August 19, “Facebook Removes Dozens of Vaccine Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’”, in The Straits Times, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Oct 2021

   The Daily Beast received a missive that Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) sent SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman on Monday, questioning whether the half-dozen disinformation superspreaders—including supplement hawker Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who had Paycheck Protection Program loans absolved this year had fulfilled all the requirements of the program.

   2021 October 26, William Bredderman, “Anti-vaxxers Got $1 Million-Plus in Forgiven PPP Loans. Now Lawmakers Want Answers.”, in The Daily Beast, archived from the original on 14 Jan 2022