According to the CDC, 377,883 people died in the U.S in 2020 with COVID as the underlying cause. That’s roughly 11.3% of total deaths.

Our country went to great lengths to fight the coronavirus. The government went $5T into debt and the Federal Reserve printed about that much. The result has been a declining dollar and increasing inflation. We disrupted supply chains and caused rampant inflation in products such as lumber. 20 million people initially lost their jobs and today there we are still short 8 million jobs from where we were in 2019.

The land of the ‘free’ shut down businesses and forced people to stay home. We stayed away from each other and everyone was required to wear masks.

We were willing to ‘do what it takes to save even one life’.

The interesting thing is that many more people died of heart disease and cancer than of COVID last year. Nearly twice as many people – 690,882 – died of heart disease. Cancer killed another 598,932.

The more interesting thing is that cancer and heart disease have been killing this many people year after year for many years. Heart disease has been the leading cause of death for 80 years.

Long after we’re all vaccinated for COVID and have herd immunity, people will be still dying of heart disease and cancer. So…

Where’s the $5T to fight these killer diseases?

Where’s the ‘anything to save a life’ mentality when it comes to heart disease and cancer?

Around 30 million Americans suffer from heart disease. Cardiovascular disease costs the U.S. about $1T per year. To fight the disease, we spend a paltry $2B in research.

Cancer costs us about $200 billion in treatment and we spend around $10B each year on average for research.

These numbers are no where near what we did for COVID last year. Where’s the “warp speed” programs for preventing the #1 and #2 killers?

And…

Where’s the government intervention?

It’s estimated that between 30 and 50% of cancer and 80% of heart disease is preventable with behavior modification.

There is one sure fire way to make a dent in ALL THREE of the big killers: being healthy. As I’ve pointed out before regarding COVID, nations with high obesity rates (>50%) have death rates that are 10X that of nations with low obesity rates. A big part of this is diet and exercise.

So why aren’t we doing something about it?

If we are in the mood to take away everyone’s freedoms, why don’t we force everyone to be healthy? Take all the cigarettes and sugary soda and foods off the shelves. Make it illegal to buy them. Force community fitness programs on the population and have everyone weigh-in once a month and get yearly physicals. Those that are obese pay significantly more for health insurance.

I’m not serious. We shouldn’t have to be forced to do what’s good for us.

Government interventions are not the way to go. We shouldn’t need to be protected from ourselves, but what’s it going to take to get on track?

I believe government mandates are dangerous in that they give us a false sense of security. The lockdowns, masks, and distancing made us think we could avoid the virus. 33 million Americans, including me, found out otherwise.

Instead of thinking we could avoid the COVID virus all together, what if we all thought there was near a 100% chance we were going to get it? Would we react differently knowing that we couldn’t avoid the virus?

The importance of a healthy diet, exercise, supplementation, and maintaining a healthy weight would become paramount as they are the things that will help us once we get the virus. If we knew we were going to get it, our whole defense system would be much more than just wearing a mask and staying home. It would revolve around surviving the virus.

As a fitness professional, I look at everything through a fitness lens. I’m very thankful for this, as it helped me navigate the COVID crisis. My defense system was based on a high probability of getting the disease – which I did. Fortunately, I was ready.

And you can be too. Do the right thing for yourself and get healthy! It won’t just help you with COVID – it’ll put you in a a good place to fight the #1 and #2 killers in the country.

Ron