Lock down kills the exponential growth. In California at the current infection rate it would take 130 years to infect another 5% of the population. Buys time:

Lock down kills the exponential growth. In California at the current infection rate it would take 130 years to infect another 5% of the population. Buys time: That allows epidemiologists to understand exactly what the risk factors are. So governments and businesses can begin to fine tune suppression measures. Gives the biotech industry time to develop cheap and fast tests. Which you need to do contact tracing. Hopefully they can develop immunotherapy agents to prevent exposed people from developing the disease. Time for public health officials to raise a small army to do contact tracing. Allows doctors time to understand how best to treat the disease. For a disease with a serious mortality morbidity rate even partly effective treatments are important. Allows sane people to grok what they need to do to keep themselves safe. And allows society to begin to reign in careless people, loons and deniers. Also give again sane people the opportunity to stay safe by not allowing businessmen like Musk to force them into unsafe working conditions.