The IMPORTANT point he made, is that we are/need to control it on a "Flatter Curve", than otherwise, so that it remains manageable within the hospital/medical system, regarding beds/resources etc. for the duration.
Yes, that is the Western methon. the epidemic will stop on ITS OWN if 2/3 of the people were infected. that is true. but:
- there are other methods of stopping it, look at china/southkorea
- calculate the number of the dead even if the hospitals were not overrun and a very optimistic low 1% of all infected will die.
- calculate the timeframe.
here in germany we are about 80 million. 2/3 is around 50 million. about 5% (very optimistic) of the infected will need intensiv care at a hospital. that are 2.5 Million. so even if we succeed and flatten the curve to fully two (2) years. than that means, that there will be 2.5 Million/730 Days = about 3 000 NEW cases for intensive care EVERY DAY - for two years. that simply is too much. yes, you could flatten the curve, but not over 2 years but over 5 or 10 years. during that time, some measures must be done, that the number of infected does not rise.
So i think the only practical method is doing it als china has done. initially lower the number of infected with harsh methods. and then prevent the epidemic from starting again by prolonging some methods like wearing masks and hygiene/behavioral methods. this methods must remain in place till there is a vaccination AND the riskgroups are vaccinated. or till there is a medcine which can cure infected persons.
With this you don't have to infect 2/3 of the people. In Chine, 80 000 infected are less than 0.1% of all chinese. and they have stopped it. yes, they have new cases, but since the continue to have infection reducing methods like wearing masks, there healthsystem will not be overrun again. we should leran from them an do the same.
caveat:
The economics will break down very hard if we go the china way. but only fopr around 1 or two months. as we see, factorys in china are opening again. if we accept 2/3 of our people to infect, we accept many more dead, but economic will not break down so hard.