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

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51–60 of 221 posts

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

#51
post #38
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure any impact from that would be a very long-term thing. A lifetime without particulates might have an effect; a month seems pretty far-fetched.

Why do you think that the effect is only long term exposure?

Seems like a pretty subtle and non-acute thing. Maybe even analogous to smoking: something that gradually erodes your health, not something that suddenly kills you.

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

#52

There is also another opinion: that many people go to the ER who don't really need to go there. I had to visit the ER recently. I did not want to go but my doctor insisted. A family member who is also a doctor also insisted I go. The ER was eerily empty. The ER doctor saw me immediately. There were only a couple of other patients that I could see. This contrasts to prior experiences in the ER where there is a long wa…

A lot of people don’t have insurance. You can’t go to a doctor for a $150 appointment without insurance. But you can go to the ER when it gets really bad for a $2000 appointment (which you don’t pay. May go to court against you but if you are poor, they won’t collect)

That's what walk-in clinics (Urgent Care) are for. You can visit those often without insurance.

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

#53
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.

>> People are staying home because they're scared of getting sick, that's not something that can be fixed by public policy.

Staying home IS the public policy in many places right now. Mere weeks ago, my social media feed was full of information about hospitals cancelling all non-emergency procedures, being overrun, doctors flying to New York, PPE shortages, etc. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a lot of people who would normally go to the ER just in case are trying to tough it out at home. Or perhaps they're more alone and the person who would normally call 911 because they're having a stroke / heart attack simply isn't with them - because isolation and social distancing is also the public policy.

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

#54

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.

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.

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

#55
post #35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could relaxing still home and cooking your own meals reduce activity-causing heart attacks? It’s a trope in the North-East that middle aged men die shoveling snow.

Possibly in the short term - in the long term the quarantine is likely going to increase heart disease due to people having more sedentary life styles... It's quite likely this is just a result of the math of going to a hospital shifting - a lot of folks decide not to go to the hospital with minor chest pain due to other obligations[1] and the addition of the outbreak likely adds to the reasons not to go to the hospi…

This is anecdotal, but I've never seen more people out walking around town than the last couple months.

Is there research showing people are more sedentary now?

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

#57

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.

Great that's also not the point of the article, that heart attacks and strokes aren't being seen at the same rate. Your point is orthogonal to the point of the article.

Exactly, I am not attempting to contradict the article, I'm just providing another opinion related to ER visits during this time.

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

#58
post #45

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.

"fixed by public policy" Public policy right now is to stay home or die of Covid 19. Many people are scared to even go outside or go to a hospital if they don't have the virus. Starting to open businesses again and requiring social distancing would definitely help with the fear and more people would actually go to the hospital for non-covid health issues.

I don't follow that. Can you walk me through how making people go to work is going to make them less afraid? You make people less afraid by reducing the risk they'll get sick, not increasing it. Releasing lockdowns before the pandemic is controlled increases risk, by definition.

This is the big flaw with the "open up" notion: it fundamentally won't work anyway. How is "opening up" the economy going to help Jet Blue when no one is willing to fly? Who is expected to fill those movie theaters and sports arenas? Who's going to sit in a crowded restaurant?

At best, opening up will get us a half-alive economy. And at the price of a much longer time until a true recovery starts.

Stay home. We can beat this. The regions that started lockdowns early (c.f. Europe, New York, the west coast) are well on their way to containment. It's the "open up" regions and the ones with partial lockdowns[1] that are the stragglers.

[1] I make this point every time it comes up: but for goodness sake something needs to happen in Nebraska. It's right on the cusp of exploding into a worst-than-NY disaster and no one is talking about it.

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

#59

There is also another opinion: that many people go to the ER who don't really need to go there. I had to visit the ER recently. I did not want to go but my doctor insisted. A family member who is also a doctor also insisted I go. The ER was eerily empty. The ER doctor saw me immediately. There were only a couple of other patients that I could see. This contrasts to prior experiences in the ER where there is a long wa…

This “opinion” has little bearing on the article. It specifically addresses the decline in heart attack (38%) and stroke (60%) admissions.

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

#60
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…

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 stressful commute, more flexibility with bedtimes (which suits me as a total owl) ... there might be lots other things, lots other external stressors, hard to tell. It's at the same time nerve-shredding and very relaxing. I wouldn't be totally surprised if a lot of people were living lives so unhealthy and harmful that the current situation would end up being a net improvement in that one way, terrible as it is in lots of others.
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