[BostonCard]

Wikipedia's says between 2 and 4. But Ro is variable. SARS was able to be pushed down below 1 very easily once it was recognized because typically only very symptomatic patients were passing it on. Coronavirus requires stronger distancing measures to lower Ro because of the degree of mild or asymptomatic cases which are still transmissible.

It seems we may have reduced it to 1 or even below 1 at least in California at this time.

Exactly.  Paradoxically, what makes SARS-COVID-2 so dangerous is that it does not cause universally severe disease.  The advantage that public health officials had in fighting SARS, MERS, and Ebola is that it was easy to identify who was sick and who was contagious.  Fighting Covid-19 is like being in a sea of icebergs.  For each case you see at the surface, there are several under the water that you can't see.

BC

[BostonCard]

Wikipedia's says between 2 and 4. But Ro is variable. SARS was able to be pushed down below 1 very easily once it was recognized because typically only very symptomatic patients were passing it on. Coronavirus requires stronger distancing measures to lower Ro because of the degree of mild or asymptomatic cases which are still transmissible.

It seems we may have reduced it to 1 or even below 1 at least in California at this time.

Exactly.  Paradoxically, what makes SARS-COVID-2 so dangerous is that it does not cause universally severe disease.  The advantage that public health officials had in fighting SARS, MERS, and Ebola is that it was easy to identify who was sick and who was contagious.  Fighting Covid-19 is like being in a sea of icebergs.  For each case you see at the surface, there are several under the water that you can't see.

BC