In the flattening of the curve diagram, wouldn’t both curves represent roughly equal populations? So only the peak changes, not the overall total?

Question

I guess this could be considered mathematics or economics, really, it is statistics.

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

Correct. I think the bigger point of “flattening the curve” was to not overwhelm the hospitals with too many patients at once. So about the same amount of people get sick, but over a longer period of time instead of all at once.

ELI5 – If a hospital only has room for 10 sick people, better to only have to treat 1 person per week for 10 weeks, instead of 10 people at once.