Obesity far more dangerous than viruses
US taxpayers turned over billions in handouts to the pharmaceutical industry to subsidize their development of COVID vaccines, as depicted in the below chart created by Forbes.
Historic windfall
Once the development was complete, those companies earned billions in profits from the vaccines, with Pfizer alone earning nearly $38 billion last year from COVID vaccine sales, while enjoying government protection from liability for vaccine injuries.
More where that came from
Globalists like the World Economic Forum (WEF) have now taken the position that those subsidies were not enough for the pharmaceutical industry. Additional taxpayer funds are needed to prepare for the next new viral strain. The WEF thus published a piece this year named “3 things the world is doing to prepare for the next pandemic”. The article advocates for government assistance in identifying new virus strains to help pharmaceutical companies develop new vaccines. These new vaccines would be produced in government subsidized factories placed outside the US.
Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company likewise claimed that, “Federal funding may boost social determinants of health infrastructure” in “How to prepare for the next pandemic”. Ed Yong of The Atlantic wants the funding be automatic, without being vulnerable to annual budget negotiations.
Each of these plans requiring taxpayer funding assumes the main enemy of public health are viruses. Are they?
Focus on the patient or the germs around them?
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta almost sounds as if he has adopted the terrain theory over germ theory, announcing that old age and obesity are the factors driving hospitalizations.
[T]he CDC estimates that the risk of hospitalization [with a positive COVID test] for those 75 or older is between 9 and 15 times higher than for those who are 18 to 29, and here in the United States, nearly 25 million people are older than 75.
When it comes to our general health, a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that people with . . . severe obesity [had a] 4.4 times higher [risk of hospitalization than a healthy person.] . . . Forty percent of Americans are obese. [Emphases added].
Time keeps on ticking
In 2019, 58 million people died out of a total world population of 7.8 billion, or about 0.8% of the global population. While 58 million deaths may sound very high, at a bit less than 1% of the population it is expected. In fact, if the population were evenly distributed by age, we would expect more than 1% of people to die each year. The over-representation of young people in the population brings down the death rate.
But it cannot go much lower as long as people are aging, as the fragility that comes with advanced age weakens the heart and other organs, as well as the immune system, and disrupts the balance that allows cells to divide just enough to avoid both atrophy and tumors.
It is thus no surprise to see the causes of death dominated by illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and respiratory issues like pneumonia that challenge the elderly far more than the young:
Preventable cancer?
The majority of deaths are due to advanced age. A relatively small portion, such as poisonings, accidents, drownings, suicides and war, are preventable through direct action. But a significant portion may be avoided indirectly through better eating habits and increased exercise. Just as fragility from aging weakens the organs and immune system, so does obesity. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists both top causes of death, heart disease and cancer, among the illnesses for which the obese are at heightened risk.
People who have overweight or obesity, compared to those with healthy weight, are at increased risk for many serious diseases and health conditions. These include:
- All-causes of death (mortality).
- High blood pressure (hypertension).
- High LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides (dyslipidemia).
- Type 2 diabetes.
- Coronary heart disease.
- Stroke.
- Gallbladder disease.
- Osteoarthritis (a breakdown of cartilage and bone within a joint).
- Sleep apnea and breathing problems.
- Many types of cancer.
- Low quality of life.
- Mental illness such as clinical depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders4,5.
- Body pain and difficulty with physical functioning6.
*Overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher. Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or higher. [Emphases added].
The World Health Organization (WHO) even issued a press release in 2022 entitled, “Obesity causes cancer and is major determinant of disability and death, warns new WHO report," in which it warned that, “[o]besity might overtake smoking as the main risk for preventable cancer.” Some of the “many types of cancer” associated with obesity are depicted in this diagram produced by the National Cancer Institute.
According to BMI charts, a 5'6" tall man who weighs 190 pounds is considered to be obese and at an elevated risk for cancer and the other diseases listed above.
Trouble fighting infections
While influenza may weaken an elderly person making them susceptible to a potentially life-ending bacterial pneumonia infection, we do not normally fear the same for a 40-year-old — unless they are obese. Scientists have, in fact, already demonstrated the immune system mechanisms debilitated by obesity, as summarized by Dr. Liji Thomas:
As fat cells swell, fat mass increases, blood flow decreases, and less oxygen is made available to the fatty or adipose tissue (AT). As cells suffer and die, their loss results in the mechanical weakness of the fatty tissue. This acts on the immune system, together with increased gut permeability and the spread of bacterial toxins throughout the body, to lead to low-grade inflammation. Obesity is associated with a dysregulated T-cell response and Th1-skewing . . .
Close the gyms or the fast food restaurants?
Less than 7 million deaths have been attributed to COVID in the three and a half years of the declared pandemic, even using the PCR tests, with high false-positive rates, and even attributing late stage cancer deaths to COVID. And even that figure for COVID deaths pales in comparison to the cancer and heart disease deaths making up about half of the approximately 58 million annual deaths.
And of those 7 million deaths, a debate lingers about what actually caused those deaths. How many were caused by hospital protocols promoting early use of ventilators and mandatory use of remdesivir which may cause acute kidney injuries? How many of the people who died were obese or elderly, conditions which would have likely led to the person succumbing to other infections in the absence of COVID? Finally, how many died from the actual interference of COVID pathogens in their respiratory function?
No matter the resolution of that debate, far more lives would be saved by closing fast food restaurants and subsidizing gym and pool memberships rather than the pharmaceutical industry. Instead of funding Pharma to “prepare for the next pandemic,” the government could assist almost half the population in escaping the epidemic of obesity.
See our previous articles on the government's contribution to nutritional problems:
