However, several experts suggest that superspreaders, which turned SARS into a global outbreak, could do the same with this new virus. That term refers to people who buck the transmission trend with a given bacteria or virus, infecting many more people than is the norm.

Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier gives a succinct answer when asked if a superspreader could profoundly alter the pattern of spread with this emerging virus: "Yes."

If the virus infected someone who turned out to be a superspreader, and that person sought care in a hospital that wasn't taking precautions against novel coronavirus infections, this new disease could rapidly begin to resemble SARS.



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