There are few points that people can agree on these days. But we’ve all known about and agreed on for over a year that people who are already sick are more likely to develop a serious/fatal case of COVID-19. And, if you’re healthy, chances are pretty good that you won’t even know that you’ve contracted the disease.
Are we all on the same page? Good.
Here’s something else we should be able to agree on: COVID-19 is a disease that primarily attacks the respiratory system. In other words, if your lungs are already compromised, and you catch COVID-19, you’re probably going to die.
Still with me? Excellent.
So, answer me this: Why is smoking cigarettes and vaping still allowed? Wouldn’t you think that banning smoking and the “smokeless” inhalation of toxic chemicals would have been top on the list of things to do? This would be a two-fer. Not only would banning smoking reduce the effect of COVID-19, it would also give the former smokers a better chance at a longer and healthier life.
Actually, if the United States were filled with non-smokers, it would be a win for everyone. It would be a multi-fer. In addition to the items already mentioned, there would be no more second-hand smoke, fewer fires, health insurance would undoubtedly be less expensive, and we wouldn’t be polluting the environment with discarded filters and battery-powered vape pens.
Win. Win. Win.
We’ve also known for quite a while, and should be able to agree on, that obesity is a major factor in the severity of COVID-19 cases. The fatter you are, the more likely it is that contracting COVID-19 will kill you.
So, why is fast food still available? Why can you still buy “food” that is high in calories and yet provides little nutritional value? During the time in history when people should be most concerned about their weight, drive thru lanes are backed up so far that they’re actually blocking traffic.
I hear people make little jokes about the “COVID fifteen” (or twenty, or forty) referring to the amount of weight they gained during “lockdowns”. They don’t seem to realize that extra fifteen, or twenty, or forty pounds increases their risk of dying from the very disease they’ve been hiding from.
It doesn’t really take all that long to lose 40 pounds. If you start exercising more and eating better, you can healthily drop 40 pounds in less than six weeks. I know because I’ve done it. In a few short weeks, tens of millions of people could have boosted their immune systems, decreased their risk from COVID-19 and started living a healthy lifestyle that will benefit them their entire lives.
Why didn’t State governments give lottery prizes, gift cards and vacations to people who lost weight? Why didn’t they pay people to quit smoking? They could have saved countless lives, both now and in the future, by simply rewarding healthier habits.
We know the answer to that question. It’s the same reason why they’re still pushing Big Pharma’s experimental drug. Money. Politicians know who butters their bread and, like it or not, it’s not the people they were elected to serve. So, they decided to hurt the people who give them votes by helping the businesses who pay for their campaigns.
COVID-19 has changed many things. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the U.S., millions of Americans lost their jobs and tens of thousands of businesses (large and small) have gone under. By any measure, life with COVID has sucked.
But, it could have had a positive effect. Properly managed, the “COVID Crisis” could have led a hundred million Americans to a healthier lifestyle, while simultaneously fortifying their own body’s immune system against a disease that primarily affects unhealthy people.
Governments everywhere should have been promoting clean living, exercise and healthy eating. They should have been giving people the tools they needed to save themselves both now and in the future.
Instead, they facilitated the very habits that put people more at risk by effectively placing everyone under house arrest and making people too scared to even walk outside.
So, millions and millions of people stayed at home, sat with their increasingly-fat asses on their couches eating the fast food they had delivered, watched Netflix, and waited for a vackseen to save them.
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