Covid19—when I realized we’d turned the corner

A week or so ago there was a sign covid19 was coming under control. What did I see? The task force noted it was time to start throwing more time and energy at racial disparities. So much of our medical research dollars have been spent the last 30-40 years looking at poverty, obesity, sexual promiscuity of gays, family dynamics, educational achievement, smoking, drugs, and now transgenderism, it's no wonder CDC and NIH don't get the viruses and bacteria under control.

Today I saw: "Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Columbus Public Health Director Dr. Mysheika Roberts have opened the Center for Public Health Innovation to address racism as a public health issue. The new center seeks to reduce health inequities to increase life expectancy and improve quality of life. The center will also address racial disparities related to COVID-19 in Columbus and around the country." This is regurgitating epidemiology, social sciences and public health research that has been going on since the 1960s, and some earlier pieces are classics, still true. Behavior affects health, whether white, Asian, Hispanic or black. More money to advance careers and enhance resumes.

We don't prevent or cure AIDS by studying how gay men think about the size of their penises, yet that research has been on going for years. You don't solve diabetes by measuring the girth of Filipino Americans compared to Swedish Americans. You can't end nicotine addiction by more funding of support groups on-line paid for by Medicare. And concluding that LaTisha and LaToya had too many "daddies" in their home growing up, isn't going to make them want to exercise when they are 50 and overweight. Bridget and Bonnie are also overweight and their parents were married and faithful.

There are thousands, maybe millions of these articles stuck deep in data bases now--we don't need more to tell us behavior matters in keeping us healthy and happy. If anyone, of any race or culture, eats too much, smokes and drinks too much, sleeps around, and only exercises long enough to change the channel, he or she is not going to be healthy based on statistical studies and grandma's advice.

There. I could have saved the tax payers billions, although no one will take my advice because it's too lucrative for academics and politicians.