Steepen the Curve
Steepen the Curve
[Line graph shown with a rising curve drawn in black. There is an underlined label above and another label below the graph. The Y-axis line is ending in an arrowhead and also has a label. All this is in black. But the last number in the upper label as well as one word in each of the other two labels, have been scribbled out in red and then another number or word has been written behind or beneath in red.] [Caption above the graph:] 202 0 1
[Y-Axis:] COVID Deaths Vaccinations
[Caption below the graph:] Flatten Steepen The Curve

This comic is another in a series of comics related to the COVID-19 pandemic .
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly became the main public concern. The virus spread at an exponential rate before initial lockdowns started to reduce the trajectory for a time. The graphic drawn in black depicts exponential growth in the measure of deaths — though it is not clear (without proper units or values on either axis) if this is because it is a cumulative count of deaths or the rate of deaths per day.  Such graphs were common in the spring of 2020, enough that Randall has previously parodied them in 2294: Coronavirus Charts . These graphs often showed future projections that compared continued exponential growth vs. curves that did not grow as fast, or even flattened out. Governments around the world realized that if the trend was to continue healthcare services would become overwhelmed, thus all kinds of political, civic and personal efforts were put towards doing things that would cause the 'curve' to flatten and not rise as rapidly as it would do unchecked. "Flatten the curve" thus became the rallying cry for all measures taken to reduce the spread of the virus.
In 2021, the pandemic is ongoing (with second or even third 'waves' of resurgence affecting some populations that had temporarily flattened the curve) but now we have a handful of vaccines available. In 2278: Scientific Briefing , White Hat remarked that many scientific briefings use similar or identical charts, but in this briefing, a chart from the beginning of the pandemic is reprinted verbatim and then crudely updated with red ink.  The red overlay intends to update the 'original' graphic to portray the number of vaccines provided (again, it could easily be either cumulative or rate-wise). With the change to what is represented, the line remains the same but the hoped-for outcome is changed accordingly. Making the curve steeper represents getting more people vaccinated faster.
In both cases, there would be an upper limit on the cumulative value, but the ceiling must be well beyond the upper limits (x and y axes) of this graph. If this is a rate-graph, it would show a peak and subsequent decline at the same point in time where a cumulative graph would show an inflection in its gradient, but neither are visible here.
Additionally, the analogy between the number of deaths and the number of vaccinated people could be considered as questionable, as the number of deaths in the initial stages of a pandemic is expected to follow an exponential law, whereas the same cannot be said for the number of vaccinated people.
The title text gives a summary of the overall goal.  Flatten the curve (of infections/deaths), Steepen the curve (of vaccinations/immunizations), Hang out.  We've done the first, we're starting the second... and the third is where we can (hopefully) all hang out together again, in person, without masks or social distancing.  But we have to finish the first two steps successfully to get to the third one.
[Line graph shown with a rising curve drawn in black. There is an underlined label above and another label below the graph. The Y-axis line is ending in an arrowhead and also has a label. All this is in black. But the last number in the upper label as well as one word in each of the other two labels, have been scribbled out in red and then another number or word has been written behind or beneath in red.] [Caption above the graph:] 202 0 1
[Y-Axis:] COVID Deaths Vaccinations
[Caption below the graph:] Flatten Steepen The Curve
