When a new infectious virus with serious or fatal symptoms is introduced into society, it will spread through the population. The speed of spread is influenced by several factors, including how quickly infected people contact non-infected people. Social distancing is one way to reduce the speed of the spread of the infection through the population and thus avoid overwhelming the medical system. This may not reduce the total number of people who become infected, but social distancing can help ensure that all of those who require treatment will be able to receive it. [Credit: Nancy R. Gough, BioSerendipity, LLC; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.]
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