Are We Overreacting?

No. Not at all. We need to “Flatten the Curve.”

We should have started social distancing in the US two weeks ago when the epidemic first exploded in Italy. Or a month ago when cases in China were on the rise and hit 40,000.

Social distancing is all we’ve got, my friends. Prevent virus droplets from getting on your hands and in your eyes, nose, mouth. OK, we also have hand washing, sanitizers, masks and the like.

China shut down a whole country - I suspect it worked because the curve is flattening a bit and they are reporting fewer than 100 new cases a day compared with thousands a month ago.

Take a look. Cases in China - new cases in China started to flatten out in late February (top line; orange dots). We are waiting for the bottom line (yellow dots) of cases outside of China to flatten out.