If social distancing were stopped in May 2020, a hypothetical date proposed by the paper, the pandemic would reemerge as the peak infection rates would be pushed to a later date.

• The R0 of California would return to its original value and the number of infected cases would be similar to the number if no social distancing was enforced. The peak would simply occur at a later date.
• In New York, due to the first social distancing measure taken, the number of people infected would have been less than if there were no social distancing.
• The peak number of cases after social distancing were terminated would be less than if no social distancing existed.