handle. if the goal of social distancing is to keep infection at levels that won't overwhelm the health care systems, how long must we keep up social distancing to process through the system everyone who is going to get sick and require hospitalization?

To me the answer to that questions depends on how much of the population is expected to become infected, thus my original question.

What freaks me out is that we expect everyone to get it, which is going to take a really long time with catastrophic economic, social, and public health consequences.

And don't even think about what could happen if immunity doesn't last long for recovered patients.