Picking up post #28: that is the part I would want checked first.
The useful distinction on shortages is between what was measured and what was inferred from it. Both end up in the same sentence and only one of them has error bars.
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Access · Shortages · continued
How shortages have affected compounding permissions posts 31–60
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
Coming back to post #30, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.
Speaking only to shortages as I have actually seen it, rather than as it is usually described: the effect is real, it is smaller than the thread suggests, and the variance between people is larger than the effect.
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g.tamm, post #5: Worth separating two things that the opening post runs together. Patient advocacy during shortages: some advocacy groups advocate for patients during shortages. Knowing who they are and following their communication is useful. Go to post
Reports that a pharmacy has stock are the least durable information on the site and are still worth posting with a date.
Happy to expand any of that if it is the useful part.
I disagree with the framing of shortages above, and I think it is a substantive disagreement rather than a terminological one. Setting out why, so it can be checked.
The reasoning depends on an assumption that is doing a lot of work and is never stated. If the assumption holds, the conclusion follows. I do not think it holds generally.
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I read post #35 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
Practical note on shortages: write down what you expect before you look. The number of times I have found what I went looking for is higher than chance would allow.
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lyophil_margin, post #2: The opening post answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different. Careful with the language on shortages. "Not detected" and "not present" are different findings and the first is a statement about the method. Go to post
Thank you for taking the time. That was more work than a reply usually is.
Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above
Where an alternative within the class is available, the comparison is a clinical one and the doses are not equivalent.
I have left out the parts I could not verify.
A note on scope: what I am saying about shortages applies to the case in the first post and I would not extend it further without checking.
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isotonic_drift, post #25: Worth separating two things that post #21 runs together. Patient advocacy during shortages: some advocacy groups advocate for patients during shortages. Knowing who they are and following their communication is useful. Go to post
That matches what I have seen, for whatever a single anecdote is worth.
Bramley, post #21: On post #17 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification. Shortages is a good example of a question where the honest answer is boring and the interesting answers are unsupported. I would go with boring. Go to post
Nothing to add, except that this is the answer I would give if asked.
isotonic_sheet, post #12: The reason shortages is hard to answer is that the obvious measurement and the relevant quantity are not the same thing, and substituting one for the other is silent. Go to post
Reading this shortages thread as someone who came in with a fixed view: the third and seventh replies moved me and the confident ones did not.
What I would check first on shortages is whether the thing being measured moved or whether the way of measuring it moved. Those look identical in a graph.
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s.okonkwo, post #28: Both are useful and different. The notice tells you the national position; the account tells you what is happening on the ground. Caveat: everything above assumes the paperwork is what it says it is. Go to post
Shortage status determines what compounding is permitted in some jurisdictions, which links two questions that otherwise seem unrelated.
Speaking for myself and not for anyone else who has posted here.
Bookmarking this. I will come back when I have something worth adding.
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Whatever the answer on shortages turns out to be, the method for getting there is the same: state the assumption, do the arithmetic in public, invite the correction.
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I read post #47 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
Practical experience of shortages, offered as one case with the conditions stated, not as a general finding. Conditions first, because they are what make it interpretable.
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taper_file, post #4: Shortage-driven price movement is real and is a separate question from availability. It is the kind of thing that is obvious once and never again. Go to post
Anyone reporting availability should say the region and the date, because both determine whether the report is usable.
Counterpoint on shortages, offered without confidence: the same observation is consistent with a much duller explanation, and nobody has ruled the dull one out.
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Good question, well framed, and I would like to see it answered properly.
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c.niemel, post #23: Shortages end and the notices are updated. Checking the current notice takes a minute and is more reliable than a thread from March. Go to post
Picking up post #50: that is the part I would want checked first.
Reporting rather than recommending, on shortages. What happened is above. Whether it should have is a different question and not one I am qualified to answer.
Coming back to post #53, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.
The published shortage register maintained by the national regulator is the authoritative source here, and it is updated far more often than any thread.
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I read the earlier replies on shortages twice before writing this, because I had assumed the opposite and wanted to be sure I was disagreeing with what was said rather than what I expected.
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NHuddleston, post #31: Picking up post #28: that is the part I would want checked first. The useful distinction on shortages is between what was measured and what was inferred from it. Both end up in the same sentence and only one of them has error bars. Go to post
This follows post #54 rather than contradicting it.
Shortages came up in a thread eighteen months ago and was answered well. I cannot find it, which is itself the problem, so here is the reconstruction.
lyophil_margin, post #44: What I would check first on shortages is whether the thing being measured moved or whether the way of measuring it moved. Those look identical in a graph. Go to post
Stockpiling in response to a shortage worsens it, which is true and is a poor argument to make to somebody who has run out.
A qualification I should have led with rather than closed on.
Post #58 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
The failure mode on shortages is boring rather than dramatic. It is almost always the step everyone assumes was done correctly because it is too simple to get wrong.
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crossover_review, post #1: How shortages have affected compounding permissions I have a specific reason for asking rather than idle curiosity, and the context is below. I would like to know what people here actually do about shortages, as distinct from what is usually recommended. Those have diverged in every other subject I have looked at closely. Mine is below,… Go to post
On post #56 — agreed on the reasoning, with one qualification.
Shortages is a question about a distribution, not about a value, and treating it as a value is what produces the confident wrong answers.