Cable TV subscriptions

The idea that cable TV subscriptions and toilet-related ER visits share a meaningful relationship is not the subject of any reasonable research paper, and yet here we are, reading one. Perhaps the cable went out at a particularly unfortunate moment. Perhaps it's just the calendar.

Cable TV subscriptions have been in long decline for years, and 2020 accelerated the cut-the-cord exodus sharply as locked-down households replaced bundles with streaming. Toilet-related ER visits, meanwhile, have been slowly climbing with an aging population, with 2020 data disrupted by covid medical reporting patterns. Two unrelated trends that happened to look notable in the same year.

So we are left with another reminder that calendars are correlation's cheapest parlour trick. One went down; the other went up. Neither was thinking about the other.