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Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

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Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article doesn't address the opinion that my doctor relative expressed: there were a lot of ER visits, not trauma related, that probably didn't need to happen.

Strokes and heart attacks don’t fall into they category.

Medically, they are different, but the risk factors are very similar, and I can't see why the quarantine would change the ratio of the two.

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#82
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But fewer externalities like bars, parties, stupid accidents with friends, rushing to meetings, traffic, physical work env stress, in some cases work altogether. Not to minimize the mental torment some people feel but I think o there is a huge reduction in certain kinds of stress.

Here's some context: both you, me and a majority of HN readers have decent lives and cushy tech jobs (I'm a student and have the luxury of coding all day). Think of everyone else: those relatively regular/average people in America, the average Joe. They have bills to pay for, but living paycheck to paycheck, they can't pay any of it. So now they're seeing whats the best way to get income. Unemployment check? Website…

Yes I agree... but let me add some color to me personally.

Me = small business owner. Revenue less than 2mm per year.

Major public company clients moved payments to net 60 and net 90 from net 30

2 clients emailed April 1st (emailed) effective immediately no contractors or agencies effective immediately.

1 major retailer we have done WiFi access point metrics for all stores in North America (roughly 4k stores) had an invoice bounce back to me. After researching I find on LinkedIn my stakeholder is no longer with the company. I push hard to get someone in AP to reply and finally I hear they stopped the entire program and didn’t think to tell us. 11 years of providing this monthly data analysis and collecting roughly a billion data points a month... gone. Without a heads up.

2 new prospective projects set to kickoff April May moved to June July.

PPP covers last years salaries. We have sizable raises to key staff (project managers in January) . 60% of my workforce if outside of the US and can’t be covered under current monetary relief. I’ve not taken a check now in almost 2 months.

Entire line of business (WordPress) is now zero.

So yes stress is in relative forms. for me it’s confining, silent, and endless.

For me I’ve been running this company for 21 years now (started in college). I’ve hit a couple of near breaking points (08 and now). And it’s an unbelievable amount of stress. I sympathize, empathize and understand what people are going through.

What gets me through this is the following:

- The time I’ve gotten to spend with my family, my kids is absolutely amazing and I will treasure it forever - I love my team and I’ll do what I can to keep them employed and without disruption - Even with the stress and uncertainty I still love my job and what I’ve built

On the business side: - As a service business I now fully and completely understand that I need to figure out how to make a more resilient business that can weather business interruption to this degree and scale. It’s easy to blame covid but it’s inevitably my job to have considered this and prepared for it. This is everything from specific contract language changes to planning cash flow for a 40-60% reduction in business for maybe 6 months.

Anyway, I thought I’d share, maybe someone finds solace in knowing they aren’t alone and that they don’t need validation for how they feel.

Hang in there everyone!

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#83
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's some context: both you, me and a majority of HN readers have decent lives and cushy tech jobs (I'm a student and have the luxury of coding all day). Think of everyone else: those relatively regular/average people in America, the average Joe. They have bills to pay for, but living paycheck to paycheck, they can't pay any of it. So now they're seeing whats the best way to get income. Unemployment check? Website…

My mental stress level is wayyy up – but I think I still feel less stressed overall, because I get more and better exercise, I cook a lot more and that means cheaper but somewhat healthier food on a schedule that better suits me in portion sizes that I choose myself (as opposed to the guy at the cafeteria counter), I have a lot less work-related stress due to remote work (everything feels somewhat more distant), no s…

You sound a lot like a person who’s never been evicted.

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#84
post #24

Are just the ERs empty? Or the whole hospital as well? If hospitals are empty, it's time to stop sheltering in place, because it means it's working too well . What's the endgame? We can't just keep the country shut down indefinitely. Life must move on. Even though there's still a lot of fear, I think reopening the country is the best option (while still maintaining social distancing, etc).

I'm going to keep repeating this until people understand the risks: Opening up too early without adequate testing in place means we go through the same problem that Hokkaido did. Which is that you get a second wave of infections and are forced to back into lockdown. As for the article itself: Reopening the country wouldn't fix that either because it's a catch-22 situation. The people most at risk of dying from COVID-…

So... you propose just staying on lockdown indefinitely until "adequate testing is in place?" And when will that be? It could be 6 months from now or more so long as the Trump administration is running things.

Lockdown isn't "free" like you seem to think. It has a very heavy cost. And some day (if not already), that cost will outweigh the lives saved from doing it in the first place. Because the combined suicides/mental health/homelessness/domestic violence/etc. increases from lockdown will be greater than [people at risk of covid-19] deaths.

Plus, if lockdowns are keeping hospitals empty, social distancing and masks without the lockdown part would allow us to utilize them more (without them going over capacity).

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that related to the lockdown? Hospitals are open. People are staying home because they're scared of getting sick, that's not something that can be fixed by public policy.

Because people have been scared into thinking that hospitals are overrun and if they step outside, they're going to get the coronavirus and die.

[deleted]

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#86
post #31

People are staying home and dying. This is one of the major trade offs no government official is talking about regarding re-opening the economy.

How is that related to the lockdown? Hospitals are open. People are staying home because they're scared of getting sick, that's not something that can be fixed by public policy.

The hospitals here in Canada stopped doing "non-essential" surgeries by government policy. This is a judgement call that is not always correct [0]

[0] https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/he-never-got-a-cha...

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it doesn't mean "stop sheltering in place," unless cases of COVID-19 have peaked. In order to tell whether they've peaked, you need testing in place, as well. Even if they have peaked, it could mean "relax some of the restrictions, but not fully end SIP, while monitoring cases." Opening things back up prematurely, without sufficient testing, is just going to get people killed.

Why do cases matter? It should be the death rate that peaks, and that's measurable without testing. In fact it seems to be over-attributed since many deaths are now being classified to Covid even if there are many other factors.

Death rate is the proxy for cases. What matters when attempting to contain the disease is prevalence of the disease.

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#88
post #73
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people fear that they'll die if they step outside, but they are afraid of catching coronavirus if they go to a hospital, and in some hot spots that's been a real risk. But it's a lower risk than dying of a heart attack because you refuse to seek care.

A solid month of messaging “stay at home” and “hospitals are overwhelmed” and ratings driven fear-mongering been far more effective than policy makers ever intended.

Hospitals were overwhelmed in many places in the world. People absolutely should have stayed home.

Or are you trying to claim that the virus is a hoax or something? This is a real risk. We've seen what happens in Madrid and Milan if you lock down just ~10 days too late.

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#89
post #10

It'd be interesting if the quarantine from the coronavirus has also quarantined us from the ravages and stresses of day to day life, leading to improved cardiovascular outcomes. I'd be curious about suicide statistics as well--would they be going up or down right now?

It's early days, but I suspect suicides will approach actual COVID-19 deaths in the end, at least in places and cultures where suicide is "acceptable". Even the most stable will have trouble with financial ruin and watching their children go hungry, and most of the newly jobless are not that stable.

Re: Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors: where are the heart attacks and strokes?

#90
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it doesn't mean "stop sheltering in place," unless cases of COVID-19 have peaked. In order to tell whether they've peaked, you need testing in place, as well. Even if they have peaked, it could mean "relax some of the restrictions, but not fully end SIP, while monitoring cases." Opening things back up prematurely, without sufficient testing, is just going to get people killed.

> Opening things back up prematurely, without sufficient testing, is just going to get people killed. But how many will get killed? Allowing people to drive down the street also kills people. What's the limit?

Well, do you have research on how many excess deaths there would be if states started opening up now? California is taking a cautious approach by only opening in stages after cases have stabilized, and only after testing is present. Do you have a better plan than what a group of public health experts have come up with?
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