[9uq34aofgh]

Not a sock-puppet.

Where's the evidence isolations will flatten the curve and not just cause another spike of cases after isolation ends?

Covid-19 isn't going to die out after a few weeks or months.

Deaths are coming from ages 70+ with severe pre-existing conditions during non-peak hospital conditions. This is normal and nothing to panic about.

Also, do R0 values of a virus change dramatically? I thought they were set based the number of non-vaccinated people who get infected...

[cliffy]

"R0 is not a biological constant for a pathogen as it is also affected by other factors such as environmental conditions and the behaviour of the infected population." [0]

If we hold R0 down long enough through change of behavior then we can absolutely flatten the curve.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number

[9uq34aofgh]

Thanks for the info on R0!

From wiki "What these thresholds will do is determine whether a disease will die out (if R0 < 1) or whether it may become epidemic (if R0 > 1), but they generally can not compare different diseases."

If seasonal flu (type-B?) has an R0 of ~1.3 can we reasonably call seasonal flu an epidemic?

H1N1 (spanish and swine flu) is ~1.8 and had major outbreaks in 1918 and 2009.

Is it realistic to expect we can sufficiently influence covid-19 using NPIs to achieve R0 < 1?