What does "total" mean here? Is this some kind of "on a long enough timeline, everyone's dead" reasoning? Limiting rate of spread is the same thing as reducing

What does "total" mean here? Is this some kind of "on a long enough timeline, everyone's dead" reasoning? Limiting rate of spread is the same thing as reducing how many infections there are at any given time. Or, the total over a bounded time frame. I don't think "well there will still be about the same total number of infections by 2025 with or without masking" is a useful observation.