Views from the Outside

 It's probably too early to post this as Coronavirus Disease 2019 ("Covid-19","the rona") isn't finished yet and there's no telling when it will be.  But in light of the Physical Activity Guidelines and Dietary Guidelines that I've already gone over I wanted to put some thoughts done about the similarities and differences with the Covid responses.  It's a useless exercise, as I have no influence over the decisions made, but it was a major upheaval for the past (almost) two years and some things about it stick out to me. Early on in the Covid Pandemic, there were two basic recommendations: Stay at least 6 feet away from other people Wash your hands Pretty soon after that, government ordered lockdowns started, originally in specific states and then nationwide (the infamous "15 Days to Slow the Spread"), so that was added to the list.  Equally infamously, the various public health authorities, including Dr Anthony Fauci and the Surgeon Gen...

 In my two previous posts ( here and here ), I discussed the relative merits of two long-standing public health initiatives that the US Government has in place.  To summarize, the Physical Activity Guidelines are, I would say, politely ignored by the various medical professions that most people come into contact with (family doctors and nurses).  My theory for that is that I would imagine that most conditions that family doctors treat don't respond to physical activity.  I'd estimate the most common complaints in a doctor's office are Upper Respiratory issues (colds, flu, sinus trouble) and digestive issues (constipation and diarrhea).  None of those will be helped with physical activity, so it doesn't come up.   In contrast, the Dietary Guidelines are hated and scorned by everyone.  Doctors may think that physical activity is a Good Thing, but maybe not relevant to the complaints that brought his patient in today.  In the Physical Activity Advoc...

 In an earlier post I offered some comments about the Physical Activity Guidelines that came from the US Health Department as an example of Governmental Public Health recommendations.  In that post I proposed 4 requirements for a successful public campaign. It has to be easy to understand and remember. It has to be within the reach of most people. It has to be widely communicated. It has to be be medically effective. It will be noted that I put "medically effective" last.  That's just me being cheeky.  Obviously they have to be medially effective or else it's not worth starting a campaign.  But you never know.  In any case, I am not proposing that these are listed in any kind of order. For this post I wanted to take a look at another public effort to make Americans better off.  I introduced the Physical Activity Guidelines as "one of the least successful" campaigns so today I want to look at the absolute least successful: the Dietary Guidelines publi...

 As I type this, the US is coming out of 18 months of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the public response to said pandemic.  The response has probably done as much damage as the virus itself, and as of October 2021, it's hard to see how the wounds in the nation will be healed from either.  And I have a lot to say about that, but that'll come later.  I want to build up to that by looking at a few other examples of public health recommendations.   The Covid19 recommendations are surely the most successful public health campaign of all time.  Everyone has heard of the recommendations -- wear a mask, wash your hands, keep your distance -- whether they agree with them or not.  But for now I want to look at one of the least successful public heath initiatives: the Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults .   It's well known that Americans are fat and lazy.  As to the "fat" part, that would be covered by the Nutrition Guidelines, which are even less succes...