Covid 19 is REAL… I get it!
I’d like to preface this by saying that I’m not a conspiracy theorist that believes Covid 19 was created and spread across the globe and the USA by design so that our economy would take a hit just in time for Donald Trump to get “Swindled” out of a win in the elections. In general, those who believe this is the case (in my humble opinion) are quite frankly just as crazy as those who believe “Q-anon” and “Proud Boys” are working to SAVE us from all the evil of the world! This sort of wacky thinking is about as justified as those trying to track down Bigfoot in the northwest, or those who think the world is FLAT. It’s simple probability, if you line up 100 people, chances are solid that you have AT LEAST 5 of those people that you could convince of absolutely anything as they are dying for SOMETHING to come along to believe in, and since these people likely have access to Facebook and the US has a population of over 300,000,000?……..ok you get the point.
With all that said, I have to admit that I’m a little concerned that the government has put so much emphasis on mask wearing, isolation and business closure instead of focusing on the real reasons for the high mortality rates in the US. Based on the CDC, 49% of hospitalizations had an underlying obesity issue, and what about the following underlying issues that exist… Asthma, Hypertension, Diabetes, Lung Disease, Autoimmune Disease, cardiovascular disease…and this is only to name a few. Another interesting piece of data is that only approximately 9% of hospitalizations were found to have no other underlying condition? And how many of these people pass away from covid? Is it the same ratio as those with underlying conditions? I’d suggest NOT…..So what does this mean? Full disclosure here, I’m NO DOCTOR, I’m an Engineer and Real Estate Investor, but it just seems to me a little absurd to not even mention some of the real root cause contributors that increase the chances of hospitalization and death? I’d compare it to telling someone who is 200lb overweight having sore knees from walking around, to “just stop walking around and get into this wheelchair” and voila…. no more knee pain!!! What about working to get the weight off?? It seems that the reason the US has such high mortality is that in general our lifestyles are not supporting our health and we can only ignore these facts for so long to protect those that are sensitive to the TRUTH! And just to clarify, I’m very much FOR mask wearing, but believe this is really only a PIECE of the puzzle so let’s start talking about the entire problem.
What about the mental health associated with isolation? Humans need connection and there is far less connection happening these days for sure! At our house, we have 3 children, 2 of which are in high school and the other is doing remote university. They are literally around all of the time, in their PJ’s hitting up ZOOM meetings, sneaking in episodes of the Kardashian’s or dissapearring to play a little Playstation perhaps? (Your not fooling us!!) While my wife and I are running around keeping business rolling as usual trying to keep our sanity. I’m finding myself getting stir crazy periodcally as well, I’m used to getting a mid-week hockey game in with the guys, maybe getting together with friends here and there. This has all taken a back seat as we just don’t know how concerned everyone is, each family has reason’s to be more or less concerned about exposure due to each individual risk level or who they are exposed to in their daily lives and I get it. There is some data that suggests after an initial decline in suicide rates due to “Honeymoon Period” there are noted increases in adolescents in the 40–50% range?? Let’s be honest, there is a group of children in our communities that need school to be open not just for educational purposes but for an essential reprieve from an unhealthy home environment and when these schools are closed we leave these children with few options further contributing to isolation and mental health challenges including suicide.
Closing businesses just get’s me even more worked up, there has been very little consistency nor has there been any real logic behind many of the closures of businesses especially in the hospitality space. Think of all the restaurants that have literally built domes outside of the actual building so that patrons are now inside, but outside? So now we are having dinner inside a temporary building outside the restaurant? And the middle to upper income earners are simply working from home still making a solid income while the “Paycheck to Paycheck” restaurant workers don’t have a job. And what about the owners? The restaurant business in general is complex and has pretty skimpy margins with few exceptions and the resilience they have shown going through all of these changes and investments with a significant drop in revenue is impressive to say the least, but how long can they really survive? Open these businesses up and wear a mask! And with 49% of hospitalizations having obesity as an underlying issue, do we really believe that shutting down the gyms is a good idea? If this isn’t an essential service currently, but weed dispensary is, we may want to rethink.
Well that is my rant for today, glad I got that off my chest, and would love to get your perspective so please comment and let me know your thoughts. The biggest thing for me is to be honest and have open dialogue about these complex issues and as a society let’s stop trying to limit the truth so that peoples feelings aren’t hurt because when we try and protect peoples feelings by avoiding the truth, we lose our ability to solve the real problems and we allow rose colored glasses to see a fictional environment.
