Todays results:

• Diarrhea for a week. Didn’t think he needs to see a GP but today he felt it does not get better and he needs to see someone now.

• Diarrhea and didn’t feel good. Yeah. That’s it.

• Had a fall three days ago. Now the elbow hurts. Does not want to go to the GP/ED,but now the daughter has arrived and basically forced the patient.

• Fall. Zero injuries. But the nursing home wanted to get

• Another fall yesterday. Zero pain when not moving, minimal pain in slight bruise.

To be fair we had a massive multi vehicle (5 cars) accident as the last call (5min before the end of our shift) that required helicopter backup and everything (severe brain, spine, thorax and abdo trauma). But still…

Nah, that’s seriously sick. Would absolutely be a warranted call for me.

Currently working on one. Shifts nearly over. Am a CritCare certified provider.

Didn’t see a single remotely sick patient today even though we ran calls back to back for most of the day.

Tbh, with a BEV I am not that concerned with oil consumption and engine work.

If I may add a German one to the list:

Ingloria Victoria by Danger Dan

It’s very clever written and targeted at a former highschool of the popular German rapper - which now boasts about him attending it for a few months but back then discriminated him from day one.

Interesting system. Which country does it that way?

the problem is that blood can be check only so thoroughly - some illnesses only develop much later and can only be tested for then, especially on a large scale. That’s why in most countries the first donation is not actually used for anything besides testing.

Anyway, plasmapheresis/apheresis has the risk of a reaction to the sodium citrate that is used as a anticoagulant - there are systems that use no sodium citrate but they increase the risk for embolisms. Sodium citrate can cause hypocalcaemia, seizures,hypertention and a few more things,but generally it’s safe in the donor setting.

No,Plasma is also heavily used for medical purposes.

Because then people who urgently need money do everything to get that money.

E.g. lie in that questionnaire. And you know who needs a lot of money? Intravenous drug users. Who tend to share needles. And have a higher risk of high risk sexual behaviour (both from prostitution itself but also rape, infections in their mucosal areas,etc)

Really can’t complain about Hyundai/Kia and Volvo (Android) so far.

Yeah. Both hardware and software, sadly. Their QA is going down the drain.

Happy Hyundai customer now.

If you count cars: A Skoda Octavia PHEV.

I love Skoda. I love the Octavia. It was my fourth Octavia and I already ordered two more for my staff. PHEV would have been ideal for our use case.

Well,things didn’t go as planned.

The whole car was bugged with software and hardware problems from day one - controll units randomly crapping out, when my dealer wanted to replace them he often had to get 5 units because four would be DOA and the one that worked kicked the bucket before I left his premises. Highlights:

• A steering wheel coming loose (only slightly,but still)
• The main display that shows your speed,etc. randomly shutting down. (Especially nice as I live close to Switzerland with their exorbitant speeding tickets)
• Randomly playing a screeching sound at full volume (especially nice at 3am or when on a highway)
• Randomly shutting of AC, some motor controls , etc.

It took 12 months for VW to take that steaming pile back, and only we sued them (Shortly before the hearing).

Second place goes to LG which sold me a OLED TV for 2k that randomly showed faulty pixel lines exactly 3 years and 3 days after I bought it (so it’s out of the extended warranty programs as well). And when asked for a quote for the repair they had the audacity to ask for almost the new price for the TV back then, aka 150% of the current market value - without even looking at it first. Good way to make sure that I never buy LG anymore.

Great Filter Events come to my mind first.

Then Gamma Ray Bursts.

And from a professional standpoint: Haemolytic fevers(Ebola,Marburg,etc.). I am trained to handle patients infected with them. But boy am I scared by them, especially on a global perspective. And for that reason also fuck everything that lives in Kitum cave or similar caves.

Both.

The US never had a comprehensive EMS system as it was never seen as an essential service, both because EMS is expensive to run (especially in the healthcare/insurance/taxation environment the US has) and because there was significant lobbying against it (there is money in EMS on a large scale if you operate it in a very cut-throat way).

But the recent downturn in healthcare availability and county-tax-income in rural regions and the dwindling volunteer numbers and enshitification of medicine have all done their part in making the whole situation so much worse.

There is actually a good study showing “ambulance deserts”. (Just as a reminder: That does not mean that no Advanced life support provider comes…it means that no Ambulance is available at all. So not even one staffed by an EMT-B and an emergency medical responder. And we’re not talking about "what happens if we need two ambulances at the same time)

A EMT is in no way qualified to handle emergencies on their own (and yes,I know their curriculum very well). And no, the majority of ambulances are not paramedic-staffed in the US - Actually only 25% of all licenced providers are Paramedics and there are large areas which have only BLS available in a reasonable timeframe. Or no EMS at all, as ambulance services are NOT an essential service in most states. (Only 11 States see it differently).

So no, not even remotely “most ambulances” are paramedic staffed. Mathematically impossible.

Besides: The shortest current timeframe in the US for paramedic training is 6 months.

That is incredibly short in international comparisons, especially when one does compare it to the skills allowed with it.

Comparison: Australia: 3 year bachelor degree to even make it on a Emergency ambulance (not counting very rural WA&NT), a master degree for the more serious skills.

Germany: 3 Year apprenticeship to be in command in the ALS ambulance, but emergency physicians are tasked to more serious cases

Switzerland: 3 year degree, emergency physicians being somewhat common, though, often additional nursing and critcare degree required for more serious cases.

Hungary: 2 Year EMT course for EMT, 4 year Bachelor for Paramedic

Poland: 3year Bachelor as minimum.

South Africa: 1year minimum for the entry, 2 year’s for most jobs, 4 years for paramedic.

Emergency Medical Service/Ambulances are a ridiculously low qualified in a fair shair of industrial nations, especially the US,France, or Austria.

Even in the countries with more training/physician based services (Germany, Belgium, Italy)the actual qualification of the responders varies widely - most of them wouldn’t be allowed to care for a single emergency within a hospital on their own.

Funny enough you are legally not allowed to call that a Döner in the EU. (Döner by law must not use ground beef. If they do you can call them Kebab,but not Döner)

How did you get a 2.50CHF lunch? Migro prepacked sandwich?

I always struggle to find cheap lunch options.

Actually COVID is one of the most used tests they do, at least around here. But you can do things like drug use, cancer epidemiology (for some cancers), etc. as well - and that is incredibly helpful from a public health point of view.

Because it’s just like with Covid - we can’t get proper data from patient sided tests because we can’t test everyone. And even if we could,not everyone would.

But everybody poops/pees. And guys like OP interpolate from that.

As someone who is doing disaster response consulting for healthcare and public health: I fucking love you guys. You make my job sooo much easier.

Seriously.

The surveillance you folks do is pretty much indisputable and far more incorruptible compared to everything else we do, in healthcare especially.

Very often you are my “discussion ending gun” when decision makers endlessly want me to prove their (flawed) point of view. A “nope, here are validated wastewater based numbers, you are wrong” is extremely satisfying sometimes.

Thanks folks!