The past year has been full of opinions about the COVID-19 virus, the treatments that people claim work, and even the number of deaths from the virus. I mean, people were full of it. And still are.

The story I heard most often from a variety of people was that people died from other causes, but physicians were told to put COVID on the death certificate by hospitals—all part of a conspiracy theory to make this innocuous virus seem dangerous. Except it wasn’t an innocuous virus. It was and is dangerous, and the preliminary mortality statistics show that: 345,000 people died from the virus in 2020.

The other lie was that there were no reported deaths from heart disease because everyone who died from heart disease was assigned COVID as the cause of death. That’s a lie; 691,000 people were reported to have died from heart disease. “They would have died from heart disease anyway,” I read again and again. I don’t disagree, but the question is when? Without the added factor of COVID, they might not have died for decades.

Do we have too many people with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, smoking, and type 2 diabetes? Absolutely. But solving that problem requires long-term solutions. Again, without COVID, there would have been many fewer deaths.

The Bottom Line

As I’ve said from the beginning of this pandemic, there’s no reason to fear the virus. You should respect it and do the things that reduce the risk of catching it, especially now with the serious mutations that are evolving. There’s talk of infrastructure legislation coming at some point. To me, we all need to evaluate our personal infrastructure, make a plan, and get our own bodies in order. That’s the way to deal with this pandemic and the next one.

Health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.5469.