"Flattening the Curve" is catchy and it has meaning for the people that developed and promoted it but over the last weeks it has become evident that although everyone knows the phrase, many people don't understand the implications. Math is hard. Calculus is harder, and most of us don't find it intuitive. Without novel treatments such as a vaccine (which is at least a year away) the number of people who get infected (represented by the area under the curve) will be the same whether we flatten it or not. The time course is what we are attempting to change. "Everyone will get this virus, we are just trying to make sure everyone doesn't get the virus at once" This is a gross oversimplification but I think it gets at the heart of what "flattening the curve" means. Everyone is sacrificing a lot by going into home isolation but I think it will be easier to endure if we understand the reasons why. There have been pictures of hospital wards that are...