Well, yes and no: if you presume the same amount of people would be getting sick, then flattening the curve would indeed necessarily spread it out. But the “two weeks” thing was at least partially in hopes of stopping the spread entirely and thus reducing the total number of people getting sick.
Well, yes and no: if you presume the same amount of people would be getting sick, then flattening the curve would indeed necessarily spread it out. But the “two weeks” thing was at least partially in hopes of stopping the spread entirely and thus reducing the total number of people getting sick.