3 ms·

Sure sounds good, let's do that with obese people too. Let's see, no need to treat lung cancer for people who smoked anymore. I think we just give a check lis

by dham 5y ago

Sure sounds good, let's do that with obese people too. Let's see, no need to treat lung cancer for people who smoked anymore. I think we just give a check list to doctors and let them decide on who to treat based on decisions someone has made in their life. Good idea. I'm on board

throwaway6734 5y ago
In general, yes. Those specific cases have much more difficult solutions than getting a few shots
tzs 5y ago
Those aren't really comparable. Those conditions all can land you in the hospital but there is enormous variation from person to person in how long it takes for that happen. You make the decisions that lead to that condition and then sometime in the next ~60 years it gets you. The effect is that these decisions result in a small increase in the steady state hospitalization levels. If obesity or smoking increases the effects of that increase on hospitalization will be spread out over decades giving plenty of time for hospital capacity to be adjusted to deal with it. (Same if obesity or smoking decreases--hospitals won't suddenly be laying off staff. Hospitalizations would fall over several years giving hospitals plenty of time to reduce capacity by simply not replacing as many workers who retire or change professions). COVID-19 is bad for hospitals because it is short term. That's why in the US we are currently getting about 20x as many daily COVID-19 hospital admissions as we got cancer admissions before COVID-19 (that's for all cancers, not just lung cancer).
- sokoloff 5y ago
  Isn’t admission for cancer relatively rare per diagnosis? (as compared to say heart attack) I’ve learned of many cancer diagnoses in my circle of family and friends and can think of only two that had a hospital admission related to it (most were treated as outpatient procedures, including most of the surgeries).

by dham 5y ago

throwaway6734 5y ago

In general, yes. Those specific cases have much more difficult solutions than getting a few shots

tzs 5y ago

Those aren't really comparable. Those conditions all can land you in the hospital but there is enormous variation from person to person in how long it takes for that happen. You make the decisions that lead to that condition and then sometime in the next ~60 years it gets you. The effect is that these decisions result in a small increase in the steady state hospitalization levels. If obesity or smoking increases the effects of that increase on hospitalization will be spread out over decades giving plenty of time for hospital capacity to be adjusted to deal with it. (Same if obesity or smoking decreases--hospitals won't suddenly be laying off staff. Hospitalizations would fall over several years giving hospitals plenty of time to reduce capacity by simply not replacing as many workers who retire or change professions). COVID-19 is bad for hospitals because it is short term. That's why in the US we are currently getting about 20x as many daily COVID-19 hospital admissions as we got cancer admissions before COVID-19 (that's for all cancers, not just lung cancer).

sokoloff 5y ago
Isn’t admission for cancer relatively rare per diagnosis? (as compared to say heart attack) I’ve learned of many cancer diagnoses in my circle of family and friends and can think of only two that had a hospital admission related to it (most were treated as outpatient procedures, including most of the surgeries).