“Researchers are creating mathematical models based upon the ‘six

degrees of separation’ idea to understand how social interaction

contributes to the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome.” Wired News

This may be related to the idea of the ‘superspreader’ implicated in the pattern of contagion of SARS. While most considerations about the superspreader phenomenon have assumed that superspreaders are more contagious than others (as a consequence of their own immunological characteristics or something about the strain of the virus they carry), models of the ‘small world’ or ‘six degrees’ phenomenon depend on a small number of nodal individuals who mix with large numbers of others and form bridges or short circuits in social connectivity. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this ‘granularity’ of the six degrees of separation in this way in a celebrated New Yorker article in 1999, for example. Perhaps the superspreaders are analogous and should be examined for their connectivity rather than their virulence? On the other hand, instead of watching our hands or our feet, perhaps we should be looking to the stars to understand the epidemiology of SARS.