Lots of tests don't change what's happening with the virus, it does change the statistics and it can mean that many of them are being identified earlier, meaning the denominator is larger relative to what some other countries are doing (testing anyone vs. more controlled tests, testing only if showing symptoms, or hardly testing at all). It could also be that their numerator is smaller because of the way they report their deaths -- I have read that various countries are inconsistent in the way deaths are being reported from covid19, for example, if a person has more than 1 cause of death, only the primary cause is perhaps reported, even if a primary heart failure patient had covid19. Don't know if this specifically applies to Germany, or to what other countries. Just a thought. Unless and until the statistics are gathered in a consistent manner, their comparison might be only marginally meaningful.
