into effect. Now, would it have slowed down faster? Quite possible. Epidemiology and economics have in common that you can't really do real-world experiments, so the shapes of the curves are totally up for debate.

There are a few stories I've read, including one where a bunch of Antarctic scientists caught the flu after months at the South Pole with no contact with anyone else, which have convinced me that viruses gonna virus. I'm on board with curve-flattening so that hospitals don't get overwhelmed, but also believe that trying to do much else is a losing game of whack-a-mole.