I heard this weekend comments from a Whitehouse spokesman that “masks don’t work” and that we should “open things up and achieve herd immunity by allowing our immune systems protect us and develop immunity to the virus”.
I’ll get to some of the other reasons why this approach is seriously flawed below but to start,a fundamental issue that the above comments ignores is that the average American’s immunity and overall health sucks!
The US has one of the worst life expectancies and chronic disease rates of all developed countries. We are the fattest and the sickest. Most Americans have more than one serious chronic disease which puts almost everyone in the US as risk of Covid complications. Just looking at weight alone, 20% of people under 20 and 42% of all Americans are obese. In all, 70-75% of Americans are overweight or obese and just being overweight increases Covid complication rates significantly. 40% are on statins. Nearly half have elevated blood pressure. All of these conditions affect our immune systems. If more people get sick, more will die unnecessarily.
The other flawed assumption in the Whitehouse comments, ones which our President has shouted out many times, is that having gotten sick is no guarantee that you won’t catch it again. There are now numerous cases of people getting re-infected and studies on people who donated convalescent plasma show that their antibody levels wane within months. Now that doesn’t mean they have no protection since we can’t look at the number of antibody-generating lymphocytes in the blood of survivors which might kick if and when re-exposure occurs, but those do little to prevent re-infection. They might shorten the course but in the meantime, you are once again infectious to others and will spread it again.
Lastly, the spokesman doctor cherry picked data to support his claim. Regarding masks and catching the disease, he was quoting a CDC paper looking at risk factors in patients who caught the disease. 85% of them reported that they wore masks regularly. Based on that isolated stat, the doctor made his comment that masks don’t work. He neglected to report that all those who caught the virus also reported that they regularly ate at restaurants, inside, and did not socially distance very well. What that doctor said was irresponsible and unethical. He should be ashamed of himself.
Spewing lies and misinformation doesn’t help.
MASKS work.
DISTANCING works.
HAND WASHING works.
VENTILATION helps.
Get VACCINATED against the flu. It helps.
It’s never too late to get HEALTHIER. We need to accept we are not healthy. Getting there takes work. You can’t just take a pill.
- Stop eating crap. YES eat more fruits and vegetables. Less animal products. Karma is a bitch!
- Get off the couch and move.
- Work on your stress.
- Sleep better.
- Think about others. Less about yourself.
Stay safe and be well.
AC