I read a post a few days ago which stuck with me, something to the effect of, "for anyone paying attention, COVID is less contagious than we thought." Thinking about stories of one spouse having COVID and not the other, of no spread in classrooms, etc. Do you think this statement is true? FWIW, I'm almost always at home and I don't do anything indoors without a mask, so I'm not trying to justify or change behavior.
OP: I'll just add that at the start of the pandemic, before we knew much, I sat next to someone who was at that time COVID positive for 1+ hour in a board meeting where he spoke extensively. Obviously no masks, etc. I never got it.
I believe studies at the beginning of the pandemic, before measures were taken and no immunity present, showed numbers like 3-5 people on average getting infected from every case. This may have been underestimated, because testing was suboptimal. But obviously this number is lower when measures are taken and/or more people become immune.
Consider the source: conservative pro-Trump media. Of course it's contagious, ask the families of the hundreds of thousands who are dead.
I don't think it's not contagious and not deadly. I'm asking how contagious.
I think spread is erratic. Some people infect 20+ people, some infect none. The evidence also suggests that young kids tend to be less infectious than adults.
This is accurate. Some people, probably due to their physiology, are very efficient spreaders and some conditions are ideal for them to spread to many, many people. However, for others, the conditions have to be just right for them to spread it. The last time I looked at it, the household attack rate was 20%; however, that is due to a combo of households where everybody gets it and those where no one does.
Honestly, I’m worried about this new super contagious strain from the UK.
This. Can’t forget about this new strain.
Anybody know if any of the vaccines can combat the new strain?
There’s no evidence that they don’t.
I think it's maybe like a wet dog. If a dog is really wet and v furry (think high viral load and person who sheds it a lot) and it shakes itself off in a small room, a lot of people will get wet. If a dog is less wet, less furry or in a larger space, fewer people will get wet. So how contagious covid is depends on the dog (person who has it.)
I like the imagery. We spent some time in a dog park this summer and were so afraid of those wet dogs. Ironically re: the analogy, we never did get wet.
Think of all the times someone in your family has picked up a cold (which is a coronavirus, just a very mild one), and one of you gets it badly, one gets a sniffle, and two others are unaffected. Obviously all of you were exposed to the same virus. Why did it affect everyone differently? Who knows.