[FoxInSocks]

What will change with the results of a test? You’ll still have the same symptoms. The treatment won’t change.

[FoxInSocks]

Actually, one thing could change: the likelihood of infecting a bunch of other people with your flu-like symptoms.

[Kozak]

Well. If you know you are infected, they can isolate you, and start tracing contacts so that maybe, I don’t know, we don’t end up with a hundred million infected and crash the hospital system.

[Pearls Before Swine]

What will change with the results of a test? You’ll still have the same symptoms. The treatment won’t change.

That's a good question. IMHO, the answer is that the treatment does change. If you've been diagnosed with presumptive coronavirus, the skids are greased for you to get respiratory therapy if you need it. If they send you home with the flu (regardless of what you actually have), they are less disposed to believe you when you start having respiratory distress.

[LouieFisk]

“What will change with the results of a test? You’ll still have the same symptoms. The treatment won’t change.”
—
If the test shows a person doesn’t have it, they won’t need unnecessary treatment. No test, nobody knows.

However, the bigger thing here is in finding the pockets & hotspots so efforts can be made where they are needed. The more testing, the better we know what’s what. Instead of playing whack a mole willy-nilly, hotspots can be targeted.

[Svartalfiar]

What will change with the results of a test? You’ll still have the same symptoms. The treatment won’t change.

Testing does matter. If they don't know what you have, then how do they know what to give you to treat it? Different drugs work on different issues, and stuff like antibiotics is useless on a viral infections. Antiviral meds are useless on a bacterial infection.

Lots of different sicknesses have the same symptoms. Try going to WebMD's online doc thing, and enter the very generic fever, cough, and sore throat (pick any combo of symptoms you want). See how many different possibilities pop up.