# Flattening the curve, and now what? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 19, 2020, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768 "2020-03-19T00:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768/21 "2020-03-21T18:39:20Z")
> [@cmosdes](#): > > I interpreted the analogy wrong. Ignore my comment. I was trying to make it fit as herd immunity! ---
**Author:** ![cmosdes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cmosdes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmosdes)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768/22 "2020-03-21T19:09:50Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I was trying to make it fit as herd immunity! Oh, then I did understand it. When I reflected on your analogy, I thought the hero is the medical system and doctors/nurses in it. In which case, they can handle minions 1 at a time (saving people that can be saved), but when this thing starts to relent (at the end), they’d be exhausted. Great posts and I appreciate all the info. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768/23 "2020-03-21T19:18:50Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Note that eventually there is a good chance that good treatments and vaccines will be available. So if the delay is long enough people may not suffer the bad effects at all. This, very much, though. There are three things in testing stages now: a serum treatment of some kind, using immunities from the blood of people who have recovered to help people currently in the throes of the disease, and two different vaccines. My worst fear is that the vaccine being tested in the US won’t be terribly effective, while the one being tested abroad will, but Trump won’t allow the more effective one to be imported, because he want “American vaccines for Americans.” I realize it means hunkering down a pretty long time-- not six weeks, but months, and that’s going to be tough on me. I’m in the process now of signing up for Amazon Flex and Uber Eats to try to bring in a little money in the interim before I go back to work. But if I can come out, and a vaccine is ready, and maybe a treatment that is reasonably effective, not to mention a test that is readily available, it’ll be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768/24 "2020-03-21T19:44:02Z")
> [@cmosdes](#): > > Oh, then I did understand it. > > When I reflected on your analogy, I thought the hero is the medical system and doctors/nurses in it. In which case, they can handle minions 1 at a time (saving people that can be saved), but when this thing starts to relent (at the end), they’d be exhausted. > > Great posts and I appreciate all the info. Yes your reflection was how I _meant_ it, but your bit about new heroes being created would work as a way to describe herd immunity. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768/25 "2020-03-21T20:29:25Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > My worst fear is that the vaccine being tested in the US won’t be terribly effective, while the one being tested abroad will, but Trump won’t allow the more effective one to be imported, because he want “American vaccines for Americans.” No, I feel that Trump has reached the point where he understands the disease is hurting his popularity. So he’s eager to jump on the first solution that’s offered, regardless of where it comes from. What I worry about is if he’ll be so eager to take the first solution that’s offered that he might pursue a solution that doesn’t work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flattening-the-curve-and-now-what/849768.md?page=1)