I think I’m failing to understand something basic. What exactly is the endgame with this social distancing strategy?
Doesn’t flattening the curve just mean moving the spike to later when you try to ease the mitigation measures?
It's so some of the people who got it can be discharged before the second spike, preventing a surge of cases at one time which will overload the healthcare system and lead to preventable deaths
Last thing - all the data from the spanish flu suggests cities that adopted social distancing had a much stronger economic rebound than cities that didn't.
It's not the real solution but it prevents some of the worst case scenarios. The only real solution is widespread available free quick and reliable testing. So this is just buying time until the idiots in Washington can learn from Korea.
One problem is that some important numbers remain so unclear/uncertain. With so many inconsistencies (why is Japan doing so well) that's it's not clear we REALLY understand -- meaning projections are ???
https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/27/coronalinks-3-27-20/…