Healthy Future US Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic, aided and abetted by racial disparities from the 50+ year chronic disease epidemic, has harmed blacks much more than whites .  Who is really surprised, crocodile tears aside, that blacks are dying at much higher rates than whites from the virus?    As The Economist implies , African-American health has been worse than white health for centuries--but do whites really even care?  Major investments have been made in government programs, but the dismal outcomes remain.   When it comes to public health, it’s not about what you say you care about, or what you try to do--it’s about the results.  Exhibit A that it can be done: we reduced smoking by ⅔ in the course of more than five decades of hard policy and program work.  Smoking among black men declined even more than among white men--and by 2008 black teens smoked at half the rate of whites . What will we do about our inactivity & unhealthy nutrition epidemic--which is much bigger, costlier & dea

A recent summary of COVID-19-related deaths in New York City  confirms the much higher mortality risks among those with underlying health conditions.  Among the >80% of fatalities for which underlying condition status was known, only 0.8% of  those dying  had no chronic disease.  As we know from prior reports, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease are underlying conditions very frequently associated with novel coronavirus deaths. Furthermore, chronic diseases make up the vast majority of "underlying conditions" among those who die.  (See earlier blog post.)  This pandemic has been another wake-up call on the continued dangers of failing to prevent the widespread inactivity & unhealthy nutrition leading to epidemic chronic disease.  Will we start making a serious effort to develop healthy habits, particularly K-12?  Or will we continue to hit the snooze button as health worsens?