On jumping from person to person - Matthias Bartsch, Uwe Buse, Lukas Eberle, Georg Fahrion, Jan Friedmann, Johann Grolle, Veronika Hackenbroch, Marc Hujer, Martin U. Müller, Fritz Schaap in Der Spiegel:

'What is clear, however, is that wherever large numbers of people are in close quarters – on cruise ships, in hospitals, in prisons, on buses and subways, in open-plan office spaces and at festivals and trade shows – the virus is presented with ideal conditions to spread. It looks as though SARS-CoV-2 has no trouble jumping from person to person.

As a result, it appears that a pandemic has become almost unavoidable. Increasing numbers of experts are beginning to wonder whether the global spread of the virus can still be stopped, and the sudden uptick of cases in Italy has underlined that concern. "There are many scenarios imaginable for a worldwide spread,” says Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard University. He is, however, prepared to make one prediction: "The assertions that by April everything will be over, are not true.”'

(...)

'The journal Science just published a paper about the most important surface protein of the pathogen that causes Covid-19. According to the team behind the paper, the protein binds much more strongly to human cells than the comparable protein from the SARS pathogen. That could be an additional explanation for why the novel coronavirus is so much more contagious than SARS.'

(...)

'Two days after Jerri Jorgensen was led out of the cabin she shared with her husband and brought to the hospital in Fukushima, her husband and all other U.S. citizens from Diamond Princess were evacuated. Buses brought them to the Haneda airport and Mark Jorgensen was flown to California seated in the hastily repurposed cabin of a cargo plane.

He is now in a second quarantine - a three-room apartment at Travis Air Force Base just outside of San Francisco. He is doing his best to keep his sense of humor, referring to his new lodgings as his "bachelor pad.” Thus far, he has shown no symptoms. But he won’t know for sure whether he is carrying the disease inside until the 14-day incubation period has passed.

His wife in Fukushima, meanwhile, is no longer showing any symptoms. She merely complains of the food and that she has no internet. The two Jorgensens are forced to remain in touch over the phone, and they talk daily. And they are forced to wait. Just like the rest of us.'

Read the article here.

Forced to wait, well, yes. As this article made clear the virus might be more contagious but at the same time less dangerous than SARS. At least those of us who are not forced into quarantine have something to be cheerful about.