If we looked at deaths against reported recoveries than the rate is much higher (I am guessing a lot of recoveries are not reported).

First reaction is "I need to avoid becoming infected at all costs". However, the costs are steep. An extreme plan to “sit at home with a month’s worth of supplies” seems plausible, but it would not be healthy to reduce movement so much and if everyone suddenly starts doing that there will be issues with food availability in the area (I live in HK).

If I am statistically so unlikely to die from this infection, I am going to take measures that prevent me from spreading it to someone who isn’t, but I won’t e.g. panic and call police if someone without a mask is near me.

Shouldn't you also plug in estimated unreported fatalities too?

Death is more difficult to hide than fever.

Unfortunately, both numbers are fluid, but the assumption is that death count is less so. If the number of deaths is underreported by orders of magnitude then my argument would not stand of course.

EDIT: I consider the number of deaths unlikely to be very underreported based on personal communication with folks in China and HK. There is a fair amount of panic on social media, but “someone I knew died, it seems related to the new virus and deaths may be underreported” so far seems not among the things people panic about. Most panic (some of which is being blown out of proportion for hype and metrics by less than scrupulous sources) appears to be fueled by other things: number of people admitted to the hospital, possible hospital staff infections, and others panicking.