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Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by jcims on Friday June 25, 2021 @11:04AM (#27631674)
Your replies to folks in this thread contain the same hubris as the content of your message, which in turn is consistent with the hubris I've encountered in the medical community over the past five years.

My wife went to urgent care twice in three months because of a pain in her side. She was turned away with cough medicine. She finally went to the ER where a CT scan revealed massive tumors in her abdomen that had gone undetected for likely years. Genetic and semi-annual CA125 screening could yield quite a few false positives, but combined with her physical symptoms she may have had more cause to press at an incomplete conclusion and possibly could have had a different outcome. She underwent nearly $2M in medical procedures over the course of 26 months and died at 45 years old last year.

A few years prior to that I was spring cleaning one day and found a glucose test kit at the house. I had the whole family test their blood glucose. My youngest was 240mg/dL. We waited a day and tested again, same thing. We took her into the hospital and they actually admitted her for two days because they had no idea what to do with a child presenting with Type 1 diabetes that hadn't gone into full DKA. That's harmful, gross, and embarrassing. And this is a major children's hospital that was recently in the top ten in the nation for endocrinology.

In both of these situations, preventative screening could have or did have positive outcomes. I don't disagree with the effect that has been observed, but the conclusion being drawn from it is revolting to me. People should be permitted to make their own decisions about their level of knowledge of the state of their body. We only get one trip as far as we know, and I just find it unacceptable that people are willing to categorically deny diagnostic technology or bemoan its development because they they don't know how to support people trying to navigate the information it brings.

Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by plank_time on Friday June 25, 2021 @11:19AM (#27631886)
Exactly. Also my sincerest condolences to you and your family.

The level of arrogance in these responses parroting what they’ve read in a paragraph online approaches that with what we saw early in the pandemic with masks.

“Masks don’t work! Fauci said so!” And the level of confidence they said it was shocking along with the self-righteousness.

Yes, maybe people can’t put on N95 masks properly... but maybe we can teach them? Is that so mind blowing? We teach people how to wash hands for 20 seconds, is it not so hard to believe you can’t teach people to wear masks properly? Maybe make masks that are easier to put on?

It’s sad how people with no vision are Karen’ing people to not think ahead or think of the future. It’s scary that it’s happening on hacker news.