California governor issues statewide 'stay at home' order

Re:California governor issues statewide 'stay at home' order by twblalock on Friday March 20, 2020 @10:52AM (#22637965)

What if the flatter curve is still above the dotted line that represents hospital capacity? Would shutting down most of the economy still be worth it?

That “flatten the curve” graph people are sharing is just a visual aid. It’s not based on real data. How could it be? Hospital capacity varies by region but everyone in the country is passing around the same graph.

It’s nice to flatten the curve, but if the flattened curve isn’t low enough then we will overload our health care system anyway, and we will add an economic shutdown on top of that.

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Re:California governor issues statewide 'stay at home' order by sxv on Friday March 20, 2020 @11:07AM (#22638098)

Flattening the curve is not all-or-nothing as you imply. If we marginally exceed hospital capacity (in a given area) we will have a small number of people who cannot get the treatment they need. At that point every additional patient is another victim of too steep a curve.

[ Parent | on HN ]