Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live

by Nicholas A. Christakis MD PhD

Flattening the curve buys time to save more lives. Ventilators and medications do not run out. Doctors and nurses are not exhausted, so they can do a better job of caring for the people who are sick, which means fewer deaths. With less cramped conditions, fewer health-care workers contract the disease themselves, keeping them on the front lines. Buying time also allows us to get the public health system ready; we can develop tests and procedures for contact tracing and learn more about the virus in our laboratories. When we flatten the curve, we also push some of the infections into the future to a point when, simply by virtue of the passage of time, scientists might have invented a vaccine or developed effective medicines or learned how to better care for people suffering from the disease—all of which reduces deaths too. Finally, it’s always possible that the virus could mutate and become less dangerous,