IM Doc November 8, 2022 at 5:44 pm I believe your points are very well taken.
When we are talking about the USA, our entire data collection system is just a total mess. I am not sure it can be ever reliably used for anything about COVID.
For example, much has been made in the past few months about USA having some of the highest mortality rates there are in the world from COVID. That is true….but is that truly a COVID issue or an adjacent problem? The vast majority of my own patients who have had a very negative outcome have been folks who have been overweight, out of control diabetics, gravely ill in some other way, or immunocompromised. The first two by far and away the problems. Is COVID killing a higher percentage of Americans because of how we have handled it specifically, or is it killing more Americans because there are 10 fast food joints at every intersection? Or is it multifactorial in ways we have not even imagined?
The issue is this is very very difficult to tease out. As you say, there is a universe of confounding variables and issues.
And the death rate is just one of the issues.
But I was trained to see what is going on before my eyes, to process it with whatever data I had available and to immediately begin working with my patients on what I am seeing. This is ESPECIALLY SO in an emergency when little is known. Unfortunately, our federal health officials have done everything possible to squelch this approach. As anyone who has been reading my comments for the past 3 years can tell you – I have repeatedly stated – LOSE WEIGHT, EAT LESS SUGAR, GET THE A1C DOWN, EXERCISE, GET OUT IN THE SUN, HUG YOUR KIDS. For it is people who do those things who really seem to have better COVID outcomes before my very own eyes. And I have doubled down on this with my own cohort. And have had many many people listen and get much healthier.
Unfortunately, these things have not ever been a priority of our federal health officials – and for that I am profoundly disappointed.
And again, this is just one example.
Do not even get me started, for example, on the definition of “vaccinated” or “unvaccinated”. Talk about confounding and misdirection
no subject
November 8, 2022 at 5:44 pm
I believe your points are very well taken.
When we are talking about the USA, our entire data collection system is just a total mess. I am not sure it can be ever reliably used for anything about COVID.
For example, much has been made in the past few months about USA having some of the highest mortality rates there are in the world from COVID. That is true….but is that truly a COVID issue or an adjacent problem? The vast majority of my own patients who have had a very negative outcome have been folks who have been overweight, out of control diabetics, gravely ill in some other way, or immunocompromised. The first two by far and away the problems. Is COVID killing a higher percentage of Americans because of how we have handled it specifically, or is it killing more Americans because there are 10 fast food joints at every intersection? Or is it multifactorial in ways we have not even imagined?
The issue is this is very very difficult to tease out. As you say, there is a universe of confounding variables and issues.
And the death rate is just one of the issues.
But I was trained to see what is going on before my eyes, to process it with whatever data I had available and to immediately begin working with my patients on what I am seeing. This is ESPECIALLY SO in an emergency when little is known. Unfortunately, our federal health officials have done everything possible to squelch this approach. As anyone who has been reading my comments for the past 3 years can tell you – I have repeatedly stated – LOSE WEIGHT, EAT LESS SUGAR, GET THE A1C DOWN, EXERCISE, GET OUT IN THE SUN, HUG YOUR KIDS. For it is people who do those things who really seem to have better COVID outcomes before my very own eyes. And I have doubled down on this with my own cohort. And have had many many people listen and get much healthier.
Unfortunately, these things have not ever been a priority of our federal health officials – and for that I am profoundly disappointed.
And again, this is just one example.
Do not even get me started, for example, on the definition of “vaccinated” or “unvaccinated”. Talk about confounding and misdirection