Incentives

 One of the most interesting (and rarely mentioned) dimensions of the current pandemic is about the individual incentives to testing. There are no doubts about the common good, the collective incentives for people to be tested - that will prompt a number of measures that help us to contain and mitigate some of the effects of the pandemic. But, on an individual level, the case is not so straightforward.

Of course, if you get tested and positive, you now know you have the disease, and can take specific steps to better protect your loved ones. But if you asymptomatic or only have mild symptoms, the benefits end there. There is no medical treatment you can take other than the ones you take for a common cold - hot tea and soup, good food habits, staying war - only serious patients are admitted to hospitals for a harder treatment.

On the other side, though, if you are positive, you can't leave your house and take a normal life (like you would if you had only a cold), you are subject to police visits to understand if you are really at home, you can't work from anywhere other than home (and only a handful of jobs and careers allow for this), in many cases, you lose a significant (or even all) of your income. 

When you think about it from an individual perspective, the negatives of being tested outweight the postivies - which means the probability of one a silent transmission vehicle is huge in most societies.