calimac

You keep saying we're trying to buy time, but I already understand that and specified it to begin with ("all these societal shutdowns are intended ... to slow the growth of infections enough to keep the hospitals from getting overwhelmed when people start getting sick"). What I want to know is, what will having bought the time consist of? At what point (and I don't mean a date, I mean what will functionally have happened) will we say we've bought that time? Insofar as what you say means anything in response to that question, we're going to have to hold out until the vaccine is ready. So ... complete social shutdown for 18 months? Is that it?