If the system is out of ventilators and you keep from infecting a person who’d need a ventilator, that’s one death prevented. If everybody is going to catch it

If the system is out of ventilators and you keep from infecting a person who’d need a ventilator, that’s one death prevented. If everybody is going to catch it, you want to maximize ventilator-hours, i.e. delay as much as possible or flatten the curve. This makes it beneficial conduct to avoid social contact whether other people are doing it or not.