> The paper you cited supports the other person's contention: that r0 of influenza is lower than that of covid. As "the other person[1]," I'd like to point out

> The paper you cited supports the other person's contention: that r0 of influenza is lower than that of covid. As "the other person[1]," I'd like to point out for the sake of accuracy that the paper you mention here does not in fact study covid. While published in February 2020, the "SARS-CoV" it talks about was SARS 1, not the virus behind the current pandemic. I've taken my prior for covid's R0 from sources such as the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scena...), which seem to report a best guess of about 2.5 with some room for variation. [1] -- Who is also leaving the argument. We've both made our points well enough for others to form their opinion, and I don't think there's much unexplored territory.