Can someone explain why testing is supposed to be this great panacea? I’m not trying to be obtuse. If there is no cure, and if we are treating symptoms, why does testing even matter?
So the media can say it's extraordinarily pandemic!!!
The way it’s supposed to work is you identity infected people and isolate them thus preventing them from infecting more people.
You also then find people they have come into contact with, test them and isolate them if positive.
Rinse, repeat.
I only began to appreciate the importance of your question in the last day or two.
If the rate of infection is fast, then the peak number of people who are sick at the same time is higher than if the rate of infection is slow.
Since the fraction of people with life-threatening conditions can be presumed to be a constant, that means that the number of people with life-threatening conditions is proportional to the number of people who are infected at any given time.
The U.S. has a roughly fixed number of medical personnel, a fixed number of hospital beds, and a fixed number of ventilators used to keep people with serious breathing problems alive.
If we can cut the rate of new infections in half, by using isolation techniques and better hygiene, then that reduces by half the number of ventilators we will need to save some lives.
When we are talking about a population of over 300 million people, then we might have ten million people infected at one time. If 100 thousand of those face a life-threatening situation, then we might have enough ventilators to nurse them through the crisis.
If, instead, twenty million are infected at one time, then that would double the number with life-threatening conditions. If that results in not having enough ventilators, then the death rate for those who don't get the best treatment will soar.
That is why we face a crisis and why the ability to slow the spread of the disease, even though there is no cure, is critical. Furthermore, even those who might not have had life-threatening conditions might do poorly if denied any medical treatment at all.
This is why my wife and I are practicing "social distancing" as it is called to delay as long as possible any chance of getting the virus. It is why EVERYONE really needs to do the same. Those who are likely to have light symptoms will be saving the lives of those who are likely to have difficulties.