i don't understand how knowing that you have the virus makes it less likely that you will die from it. There's no cure right? and at this point, anyone with a flu or cold will assume they have it and act accordingly, right?
Imagine 100 people contract the virus, 10 develop serious symptoms, and one dies.
In country A, with widespread testing, 40 of the 100 are identified. The visible statistics are 40 cases, one death, death rate of 2.5%.
In country B, with poor testing, only the 10 with serious symptoms are identified. The visible statistics are 10 cases, one death, death rate of 10%.
Again, this is about the reported statistics, not the underlying truth of the disease.
Right now I see so many people carrying on their life as usual, because they think there aren't many infected people around them. That impression is a consequence of the lack of testing. It's likely that there are quite a few people around them who are sick and spreading this disease, and if more people realized that they'd act differently.
Resources and isolation measures are also directed to places where there are a lot of known infections, but if those infections are undetected very little gets done about them.
The relative lack of testing is a nightmare in the making.
1. Death from complications takes some time. You won't really know the real numbers until enough time has passed for the serious cases to resolve one way or the other.
2. Treatment makes a difference. Odds of death increase dramatically when treatment is not available.