Opinion: A Crucial Point We’re Missing About COVID-19
Imagine you’re in your car when it suddenly stops. You check the radiator, replace some worn-out hoses, trace odd sounds to the transmission, remove and tighten various parts, but still it doesn’t work. Then you discover that you had simply run out of gas. The problem and solution could have been found and addressed sooner and with less time, effort, and money if you’d taken a different approach.
As regions of the United States began to reopen in June, I wrote an essay on COVID-19 that raised the idea of launching an initiative to improve public health as an additional measure to help fight the effects of the disease, arguing that, in the same way that wearing masks and social distancing can help protect individuals from picking up and spreading the virus, we could also take measures to strengthen our immune systems together. Ridiculous? Impossible? Preposterous? I don’t think so, considering the alternative, current state of affairs. More importantly, it addresses a deeper problem: poor health.
When the pandemic began, we didn’t know to what extent COVID-19 was deadly. We watched horrified at what was happening in hospitals. Quarantines and lockdowns were instituted to minimize exposure and mitigate consequences. At the onset, we didn’t know what to expect in the long run.
But today, regardless of how data is interpreted to arrive at counts, everyone can agree that a small percentage of the global population is severely ill or dead (SID) from COVID-19. Also confirmed is that the majority of SID were health compromised, heavily exposed to the virus, or both.
In my essay I pointed out that, of the remaining SID population, the anomalies — those who were considered healthy, without an underlying health condition — were also likely to be health compromised because: 1) There isn’t a complete, precise set of markers that accurately defines health to confirm their state of health; 2) Research shows that many people do not know they have an underlying health condition; and 3) Medical experts agree that lifestyle is a significant determinant of health, with immune-weakening stress possibly the single most overriding factor of COVID-19 anomalies around the world.
In other words, people don’t get sick for no reason. Furthermore, the majority of infected people haven’t been SID, and the virus is responsible for only 6% of deaths on its own, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus is not entirely the culprit. However, the virus isn’t going away anytime soon. We still must contend with it.
With more and more people wearing masks and social distancing, perhaps we’re on our way to mitigating exposure. But what hasn’t been addressed is what to do about the health-compromised SID population. Each new spike and surge, coupled with unprecedented stress that weakens immune-system functioning, could grow the SID population — a second wave this fall and winter, more so. Over time, no one is guaranteed of not becoming SID.
As people continue to struggle economically, emotionally, and socially, and experts predict we won’t return to normal for a few years while vaccines and other drug treatments are being developed — why wouldn’t we want to try improve our health together as a part of the solution? Poor health is the root problem of SID, and SID is what concerns us most. Working to improve health is a crucial part of the solution. It could, quite possibly, help turn this health crisis around.
I offer practical solutions for improving health
Marlene Veltre is the author of The Simple Seven health book and creator of The Method, a stress management and emotional healing tool.
Visit TheSimpleSeven.com
Originally published at https://www.thesimpleseven.com on September 30, 2020.
