  The spread of infectious epidemics is often accelerated by super-spreader
events. Understanding their effect is important, particularly in the context of
standard epidemiological models, which require estimates for parameters such as
$R_0$. In this letter, we show that the effective value of $R_0$ in
super-spreader situations is significantly large, of the order of hundreds,
suggesting a delta-function-like behavior during the event. Use of a well-mixed
room model supports these findings. They elucidate infection kinetic modeling
in enclosed environments, which differ from the standard SIR model, and provide
expressions for $R_0$ in terms of physical and operational parameters. The
overall impact of super-spreader events can be significant, depending on the
state of the epidemic and how the infections generated by the event
subsequently spread in the community.
