You don't know the number of people who die who were infected if you didn't test them. I think your argument is only valid when the death rate is the same amongst tested and untested people.
What? Of course we do. Influenza rapid tests are among the most common diagnostics during flu season. Epidemiologists rely on these tests as well as serological surveillance to derive IFR estimates for the various flu bugs, just as they do for covid.
But it doesn't matter. Your assertion was that flu and covid IFR's are "apples to oranges" because we're taking measures to reduce covid infections. This is nonsense on the simplest logical level. Reducing the infection rate doesn't reduce the danger to the individuals who do get infected, as long as the standard of care remains stable.
They're referring to testing people who aren't sick. I don't know how much it's done in studies in order to get asymptomatic estimates, but we definitely don't try to test everyone who was only exposed, like we are with SARS-CoV-2.
