A Covid-19 Perspective Worth Understanding

Let me ask you a question. If I throw a match on dry brush and it sets a huge fire that causes mass destruction, is it the matches fault or the dry brush? Which is the true problem? Think about it. This Covid-19 virus is like a match being thrown on everyone's lawn. Eventually, you can bet that everyone will be exposed to it and the match will be thrown on your lawn too if it hasn't already.

However, not everyone who is exposed will get sick. In other words, your lawn may be safe and unharmed. The current estimate if you look at the graphic below is about 5-9% of our population has been infected with Covid-19. Many cases have not been reported because people get sick, don't report it to health officials, and then get over it. Much, like getting the flu in the past, we never would report it to the local health authorities if we got sick. 1% of cases have been reported but it is much more likely that 5-9% is a more accurate figure of the actual infection rate.

Here is another thing to consider, the death rate and case fatality rates are 47 per 100,000, and 3.3% respectively. Meaning that 47 per 100,000 people in the US have died of Covid-19. That's about 1 person per 2,000 people. A case fatality rate of 3.3% means that your chances of dying should you get sick with Covid-19 are 3.3.%. A recent survey of 1,000 people in the U.S. revealed that Americans believe that 9% of the population has died of Covid? When in reality it's .047%. WOW! In this survey, people estimated 225 x's higher than reality. How have we been injected with so much fear and paralyzed so many people? Answer: TV, Facebook, and Social Media in my humble opinion.

I'm just curious why we focus so much on the virus, case numbers, and deaths? Why aren't we focusing on host immunity? Is it the seed or the soil that germinates the plant? It's both but I assure you if you throw a seed on good soil it is much more likely to germinate. In the case of Covid, you want your soil (body) to be like SAND, the most inhospitable environment possible. You don't want to let that virus replicate because it gets stopped dead in its tracks should it come a knocking on your door.

How do we keep our health and immunity strong and not be a breeding ground for Covid-19? Don't have Comorbidities. Don't have diseases that make it much more likely to get Covid in the first place, and second, if you contract Covid, have a poor outcome or die.

In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that was aimed at describing the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in a US health care system, here is what was found.

Results: A total of 5700 patients were included (median age, 63 years, and 39.7% female). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (56.6%), obesity (41.7%), and diabetes (33.8%).

1.Hypertension

2.Obesity

3.Diabetes

Those are pretty darn common and prevalent in this county! These diseases and symptoms (high blood pressure, too much belly fat, and high blood sugar) make up a common condition that I see all the time in my office called Metabolic Syndrome.

If we spent as much time focusing on dealing with people with Metabolic Syndrome as we do on trying to contain and deal with this virus, I bet we'd see a lot fewer deaths and poor outcomes related to COVID and we could get back to living life without fear.