Archive for October 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, the global community has become accustomed to comprehensive, interventional strategies such as wearing a mask, social distancing, hand hygiene, and surface cleaning and disinfection. It is well known that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs through direct, indirect, or close contact with infected people through infectious secretions, such as saliva and…

One of the important determinants of severe Covid-19 appears to be an inappropriate response by the innate immune system. Specifically, this involves, on the one hand, insufficient or delayed expression and signaling by type 1 interferons (IFNs), which induce innate cell-mediated immunity. The interferon (IFN) response constitutes the major first line of defense against viruses.…

The concept of Superspreaders and Superspreading events has recently attracted a lot of attention. In fact it is important to understand that most of SARS-CoV-2 infected persons are in fact not contagious! Thus, transmission is really dependent on a handful of individuals we call Superspreaders who nurture Superspreading events. Let’s distinguish between Superspreaders and Superspreading…