It seems surreal to think that at the start of this year, few of us were aware of the threat of a novel new virus gaining momentum overseas. Now, only a few months later, the coronavirus or COVID-19, is a global pandemic, the effects of which have impacted nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives.

As the number of cases in the U.S. continued to grow, states enacted restrictions to enforce social distancing efforts, with stay at home orders, business closures, and for businesses deemed essential, establishing guidelines to ensure customer and employee safety. At the heart of this was the desire to limit person-to-person contact in order to slow the rapidly climbing rate of infections. And so the terminology, “flatten the curve,” became part of our everyday conversation.

For this episode I am joined by Julie Swann, department head and A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor of the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering with North Carolina State University, to discuss what the impact could be on the national and even world-wide effort to flatten the curve as states being to lift their restrictions.