Coronavirus control measures aren't pointless – just slowing down the pandemic could save millions of lives
The goal is to “flatten the curve.” Rather than letting the virus quickly rampage through the population and burn itself out fast, the idea is to spread all those infections out over a longer period of time.
Yes, it would potentially prolong the epidemic. But in doing so, public health agencies and the health care infrastructure
gain invaluable time to respond to the crisis.
Most importantly, “flattening the curve” provides an opportunity to significantly reduce deaths from COVID-19.
On the steep rise of the epidemic curve, especially
when testing capacity is lacking, there is a tremendous burden on health care providers – many of whom will fall ill themselves and be forced to self-isolate, becoming unable to provide care for those in need. At the same time, there is immense pressure placed on health care facilities where
demand for patient care will outpace capacity – things like the number of hospital beds, ventilators and so on – for a significant amount of time.
So yes, even if every person on Earth eventually comes down with COVID-19, there are real benefits to making sure it doesn’t all happen in the next few weeks.
(reposting. After reading this, I do think our government intentionally limits testing, if they don’t test, they don’t have the influx of patients). Moo
