Healthy Future US Blog

The national security threat of an unhealthy population extends far beyond difficulties in enlisting fit military personnel. The military budget makes up about 20% of the federal budget. In contrast, health costs are now almost 50% of federal spending, many times higher than in the past.  Continued increases in government spending on health care pose a growing threat to military budgets.   Military spending has been at roughly 3-4% of GDP for the last 30 years.  In contrast, total US health costs over that same period have increased from 12% to 18% of US GDP.   Employers have passed an increasing % of health costs on to employees, resulting in higher employee premiums & out-of-pocket spending.  Average health costs per person have almost doubled over the last 30+ years.  (Bad) health is absorbing a growing share of family spending, and reducing money available for anything else.  We are all paying for each others' health care, with the de...

We already knew that the chronic disease pandemic was creating a national security threat.  The military has stated for years that it is having trouble recruiting, since so many young people are obese & unfit to enlist .  Now we are realizing that our public health weaknesses have made us much more vulnerable to COVID-19...& to future infectious disease pandemics.  Not just our health, but our national security is at stake. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, until recently head of the FDA, just  warned that future pandemics could present an "asymmetric threat" to the USA (starting in video at 5:25).  Think how much damage less than two dozen Al Qaeda terrorists did--now think much bigger.   Nearly 3000 Americans died in the 9/11 attacks--compared to >200,000 now expected to have died from COVID-19 in the coming months. Americans' much higher chronic disease prevalence  magnifies this infectious disease risk.   Why wouldn't China, Russia, Ir...

The disturbing news linking chronic disease with much higher COVID-19 risks continues: any future  COVID-19 vaccine could be much less effective among the >107M Americans who are obese .  >40% of adult Americans are obese, including ~10% of teens & adults with severe obesity. We already know that people of color are at much higher risk of being infected, hospitalized & dying from the novel coronavirus.  Closely related to this, African-, Native-, & Latino-Americans are also much more likely to be obese & have other underlying chronic conditions.   Those hoping that vaccines could help reduce these disparities will be disappointed.  But we should have known better: for example, t he flu vaccine is much less effective among people with obesity. In addition, t hanks to past neglect & abuse of minority populations by those in power, non-whites are distrustful of government & less likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine, even if it is f...