R0 is an observed metric, not an inherent metric. That is, the R0 for asymptomatic patients depends on how those patients interact with other humans, not just o

R0 is an observed metric, not an inherent metric. That is, the R0 for asymptomatic patients depends on how those patients interact with other humans, not just on how the disease works. Reducing human interactions will reduce R0 for every communicable disease including COVID-19. This is highlighted on the Wikipedia page, for example: > R_{0} is not a biological constant for a pathogen as it is also affected by other factors such as environmental conditions and the behaviour of the infected population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number We don't need to know the R0 to know that COVID-19 causes abnormal impacts on society like increased hospitalizations and deaths; those abnormal impacts are how we discovered the disease in the first place. Those are the reason that affected societies are changing how they work temporarily to mitigate the impact of the disease.