Unless you hermetically seal yourself from the outside world, you are still at r...

maxerickson · on March 12, 2020

Yes, it's the value of the exponent that I am talking about. Smaller is, uh, exponentially, better than larger.

(I'm being sarcastic, but changing the exponent is (literally) what all the public health messaging about flattening the curve is about)

rabidrat · on March 12, 2020

(to be completely pedantic, flattening the curve is about changing the base. The exponent is time.)

maxerickson · on March 12, 2020

No, the equation is (currently infected)^(rate*time).

Community mitigation changes the rate.

rabidrat · on March 12, 2020

Okay, I think you're right here. But then why when I calculate compound interest, it's (1+rate)^time ?

maxerickson · on March 12, 2020

The infection is continuously compounding. This video is hand wavy, but it shows the relationship:

yellowapple · on March 12, 2020

> Unless you hermetically seal yourself from the outside world, you are still at risk.

By that logic, unless you hermetically seal yourself from the outside world, you are still putting everyone else at risk.

And in either case, by that same logic, isolation apparently doesn't matter, so might as well still go to the bar.