The Benefits of Flattening the Curve

The purpose of flattening the curve is to save a very particular set of lives. There are people who experience no symptoms whatsoever, totally asymptomatic. Then there's the hospitalised set - those who would develop pneumonia or heavy breathing problems and if we gave them a hospital bed, they don't die. And then there's severely critical cases where it doesn't matter. If you get COVID, if you go to hospital, you're going to die. That's the disease that's going to kill you. Those are the people deriving the benefit from flatten the curve.