With the recent spread of COVID-19, I decided to take a look at infectious disease models and how these models generate the “Flattening the Curve” plot.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/whats-social-distancing-flattening-curve-covid-19-questions/
The simplest model of infectious disease spread is the SIR model. In this model, there are three groups: Susceptible (\(S\)), Infected (\(I\)), and Recovered (\(R\)). The susceptible spread the disease to the infected and the infected eventually recover. The model is governed by three differential equations: