As Iowa and several other places around the world are trying to flatten the curve of COVID-19, what does that really mean if the virus is eventually going to infect everyone?

Greene County Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Line says flattening the curve of COVID-19 is a strategy to control the rate of the spread of the virus. He explains what would happen if there weren’t restrictions and guidance in place, which could allow for a rapid spread of the virus.

“If we don’t flatten the curve and allow the virus to kind of run rampant and have a very peaked curve where many people get infected at once, it’ll overwhelm our hospital resources. We just don’t have enough resources, meaning hospital beds, ICU (intensive care unit) beds, ventilators, high-flow oxygen equipment either in Iowa or the United States to handle that peaked curve.”

Dr. Line points out that if they can flatten the curve of the virus, then the idea is that with a vast majority of the population that will be infected with the virus, people eventually achieve herd immunity. He says herd immunity is when a significant portion of the population is immune to an infectious disease like COVID-19, which makes infection from person-to-person unlikely.

Dr. Line explains there are two ways to achieve herd immunity: through a vaccine or allowing the virus to slowly infect a majority of the population. He adds, there is currently no vaccine available for COVID-19.

“So my understanding is that approximately 70-percent, 7-0 percent of the population needs to become immune to COVID(-19) to achieve herd immunity. And the only way for us to achieve that again is through infection.”

Dr. Line says flattening the curve is a way to protect lives while enough people become infected to achieve herd immunity.