And if we are playing economics, while they experience that misery they also aren't earning money or paying taxes resulting in lost productivity. Their family is also likely sidelined for a while so that adds to reduced productivity, taxes and income to places they frequent.
On the other hand, all the people who are getting unnecessary screenings and medical treatments are also not working, resulting in lost productivity. And the medical professionals wasting time on screenings/treating people with non-symptomatic parasites could be helping people with emergent problems.
Well, if we posit a world where people are regularly getting "unnecessary" screenings for this condition, we're probably also positing a world where people are seeing their doctors regularly and getting a whole host of "unnecessary" tests for all kinds of conditions whose initial symptoms are subtle and easy to blow off.
So this is probably part of a world where all KINDS of conditions are detected and corrected early. Take, I dunno, one day out of every quarter, get some blood drawn, a few scrapings taken, and have a zillion tests run on it. Then spend the next quarter feeling pretty secure that You Are In Good Health. Or that You Have Something Wrong But It Is Being Handled. Less stuff to worry about - better quality of life. Which, if you only look at things in terms of the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR and WORKER PRODUCTIVITY, also means happier workers who have one less thing distracting them.
As opposed to the current state of things in America, where any and all interactions with the medical world are to be feared because costs are insanely high, and insurance companies fight like crazy to avoid any and all payouts.
I hate to get political with this, but really, I think any attempt to think about the cost/benefit situation of something like this is going to pretty quickly lead into considering the overall state of health-care.
...we're probably also positing a world where people are seeing their doctors regularly and getting a whole host of "unnecessary" tests for all kinds of conditions whose initial symptoms are subtle and easy to blow off.
In that case, we are positing a world in which thousands of people are receiving false positives, suffering side effects from unnecessary treatments, and dying of infections they received while their non-cancerous mri blip was biopsied.
Even in a world where MRIs and HIV tests are free, full body scans and HIV tests for everyone would be a dumb idea.
