The answer is that R 0 , despite all its flaws, is all that we have. No other concept has so effectively transcended mathematics, biology, epidemiology, and immunology. No other concept is so general that it can be understood in terms of compartment models, network models, partial differential equations, and metapopulation models. "The number of secondary infections" has an intuitive appeal that outlasts even the inaccuracy of that statement when applied to the concept.