3 ms·

It’s not too much of a mystery. There’s a very good likelihood that the fact that people aren’t getting regular healthcare for other health problem has lead to

It’s not too much of a mystery. There’s a very good likelihood that the fact that people aren’t getting regular healthcare for other health problem has lead to higher deaths rates. Hospital utilization is significantly below normal currently which means those common heart attacks, strokes, cancer screenings, among others are still occurring but not treated and resulting in higher fatalities.

cma 6y ago
But then why would it be correspondingly higher in New York along with their infection rate? Other places were just as locked down without a spike of similar magnitude. That makes no sense.
- elcritch 6y ago
  Good point, and that could indicate those unaccounted deaths are skewed towards being covid-19 related. There’s still odd patterns with the covid-19 hotspots, and I’d suspect that the underlying reasons could correlate with higher non-covid-19 death rates. As in older and/or sicker populations.
  - cma 6y ago
    Didn't it follow the infection lag for the most part? Why would heart attacks lag lockdown infection growth stoppage by the same amount as virus deaths?
kryogen1c 6y ago
> Hospital utilization is significantly below normal currently this is true but misleading. hospitial utilization is down because elective procedures are cancelled, not because its illegal to show up with a heart attack or something absurd like that. ERs are still open like normal, albeit in a quarantine-sensitive model.
- elcritch 6y ago
  That’s technically accurate, but doesn’t account for how many more serious diagnosis begin from routine care or how afraid people are of covid-19 they’ll still not go in even when they normally would. A local hospital put out a PSA that yes they were in fact open, safe, and that people should come in for medical issues. They indicated worries that people were suffering more serious issues due to fear of the pandemic.

cma 6y ago

But then why would it be correspondingly higher in New York along with their infection rate? Other places were just as locked down without a spike of similar magnitude. That makes no sense.

elcritch 6y ago
Good point, and that could indicate those unaccounted deaths are skewed towards being covid-19 related. There’s still odd patterns with the covid-19 hotspots, and I’d suspect that the underlying reasons could correlate with higher non-covid-19 death rates. As in older and/or sicker populations.
- cma 6y ago
  Didn't it follow the infection lag for the most part? Why would heart attacks lag lockdown infection growth stoppage by the same amount as virus deaths?

kryogen1c 6y ago

> Hospital utilization is significantly below normal currently this is true but misleading. hospitial utilization is down because elective procedures are cancelled, not because its illegal to show up with a heart attack or something absurd like that. ERs are still open like normal, albeit in a quarantine-sensitive model.

elcritch 6y ago
That’s technically accurate, but doesn’t account for how many more serious diagnosis begin from routine care or how afraid people are of covid-19 they’ll still not go in even when they normally would. A local hospital put out a PSA that yes they were in fact open, safe, and that people should come in for medical issues. They indicated worries that people were suffering more serious issues due to fear of the pandemic.