>Breast cancer awareness programs are a good example of early screening programs not being an exercise in mass hysteria. This example also shows how screening

>Breast cancer awareness programs are a good example of early screening programs not being an exercise in mass hysteria. This example also shows how screening can be recommended against because that's better for public health. The US Preventive Services Task Force (indirectly decides what Medicaid/Medicare covers) has different recommendations than the American Cancer Society for how often women of certain ages should have mammograms. USPSTF recommends against routine mammograms for women aged 40 to 49 if they don't have other risk factors. ACS recommends biannual mammograms start at age 45. The reason they differ is because of how they weigh the reduction in deaths against the harm of false positives. Routine mammograms will prevent breast cancer death, no doubt about it. But notice neither recommends routine mammograms for all women below 45, even though they accounted for over 10% of breast cancer diagnoses in 2014-2018[0]. The math is tricky when comparing a risk of death against quality of life and economic costs. Public health is a matter of public policy as much as health. [0] https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/breast.html