What is R nought?

With COVID-19 and the Coronavirus dominating the news I’m learning a lot about how viruses spread and steps we can take to help more people have better outcomes. This post from Vox is a fantastic summary of key info that everyone should read.

One new thing I learned from the post is the definition of “R nought” or “R0”, which “estimates the number of people an average infected person spreads the disease to.” Here’s an infographic from Vox:

This shows that COVID-19 is about 2x as contagious as the seasonal flu. That, combined with the at least 23x greater fatality rate of COVID-19 compared to the flu, helps to explain why all of these social distancing measures are important.

Read more here: 9 charts that explain the coronavirus pandemic