Testing for the virus does not save lives
I'm not sure I buy that.
Testing is vital to lower the R0. R0 is not an intrinsic number, it is a result of cultural practices and mitigation strategies. It can be altered. The less people who get the disease (or even just delaying it as long as possible) will save lives. Especially since we know there are asymptomatic super-spreaders who do not even know they are infectious. Testing allows you to identify spreaders and get them isolated to reduce the R0.
As you mentioned, reducing the R0, even temporarily prevents the medical system from becoming saturated. So that help reduce the CFR, because we have seen that a 1% CFR can climb to 5-10% once the medical system is overloaded.
Widespread, aggressive testing/contract tracing/isolating the infectious, is one of the best ways to get control of the situation as exemplified by S. Korea. It starts with testing.
I've been having a long email argument with a friend over this, who was of the opinion that no effort matters because a vaccine is 18 months away so we are all going to get it anyway so lets just go about our normal business and roll the dice.
My argument back is:
1. Not everyone is going to get it. As more get it and most hopefully recover, we will approach herd immunity. As we approach herd immunity, your odds of getting it, if you haven't already, decrease. Every day you postpone getting sick increases your odds. 30% of the population may never get it at all due to herd immunity. You strategy should be to do everything possible to keep yourself, and those you care about, in that magic 30%.
2. You certainly want to put it off until we have absorbed and processed the massive wave of seriously ill that are all ready on their way due to our delays in taking this seriously. That is already baked-in. There is no avoiding it at this point. Your odds of surviving a serious illness will probably be greater six months from now after that initial wave has been cremated, and additional overflow facilities are fully operational in Hotels and Convention Centers.
3. The longer you can delay getting infected, the greater the chance that a cocktail of pharma will be isolated that can help treat and mitigate the worst of the outcomes. None of them is likely to a magic silver bullet, but even if they can push the odds another 10% into the survival column, then you want those additional odds.
4. Maybe you are lucky enough and delay it long enough and wake up to an announcement that a vaccine has been approved.
