Why doesn't the government tell us how to be healthy?

[Michael569]

I totally agree with you. People are panicking because they feel helpless.  If the government was handing out vitamin D free tests along with a free prescription for vitamin D for those with deficiency and a multivitamin complex to people along with some guidelines around hydration, eating, exercising, some guided stress releasing exercises that would be way way way more helpful than creating a herd of vaccinated sheep. 

[mandyjw]

It's a common habit of the mind to focus on problems rather than well being. 

[Leo Gura]

For the government to tell you how to be healthy it must first understand holistic health, which it does not because our culture has not yet evolved to such a level. Government's approach to health is mostly stage Blue/Orange. Which means materialistic health strategies that avoid preventative and holistic health.

Also, the government's biggest job is to keep people from dying, not to make them thrive. The government is there to go very basic stuff, not to lead you towards greatness. That's your own responsibility.

From the government's POV it is not a viable solution to just hand out free supplements to people because Covid will still ravage half the population who are unhealthy, obese, and who will not stick to a consistent vitamin schedule even if their lives depended on it.

Since most people are dumb, government's solutions must be such as to work for and scale for tens of millions of dumb and lazy people. They must also scale for poor people, since 1/3rd of the US is poor and cannot even afford stuff like vitamins or healthy foods.

[Forestluv]

3 hours ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

Thats not true, the whole premise behind these protocols IS stay healthy. Reducing the spread of the virus WOULD naturally happen if individuals were more healthy. 

There are many variables. Having a well-rounded healthy lifestyle of diet, exercise, meditation, social interactions, low stress can allow for a healthy immune system - yet there are also other factors. If you put a group of the super healthy people in a stadium and real smallpox, they WILL get ill. Very ill. And it will spread through the that population. Having a healthy mind and body is a subset of variables related to illness at individual and social levels.

I the context of the corona virus, promoting a healthy lifestyle and anti-viral mitigation efforts are both helpful. 

There are plenty of places the government tries to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors, yet it’s in the background and can’t penetrate noise. The average consciousness of society just isn’t there yet. Efforts to educate the public about healthy diets is drowned out by addictions to high fructose, the pleasure and convenience of McDonalds and hyper capitalism placing profits o er health. And it’s not just with our own bodies. Look at how we treat other animals and the environment.

[Flowerfaeiry]

47 minutes ago, Forestluv said:

If you put a group of the super healthy people in a stadium and real smallpox, they WILL get ill. Very ill. And it will spread through the that population.

How do you know this? Have there been studies or observations to prove this type of thing? 

 

49 minutes ago, Forestluv said:

There are plenty of places the government tries to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors, yet it’s in the background and can’t penetrate noise. The average consciousness of society just isn’t there yet. Efforts to educate the public about healthy diets is drowned out by addictions to high fructose, the pleasure and convenience of McDonalds and hyper capitalism placing profits o er health. And it’s not just with our own bodies. Look at how we treat other animals and the environment.

I don't understand this trust in the government and news sources that push the effectiveness of these "preventative" measures, but don't say a lick of anything having to do with actual real health. I understand that society just isn't there yet but can't we do something about that? I mean stop the madness with these so called preventative measure which I don't think are doing anything. We have very obese, sick individuals thinking that staying 6ft away from me and wearing a poorly donned mask will protect themselves from getting this virus.  I guess I'm mostly mad about the stupidity. 

[Leo Gura]

4 minutes ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

but can't we do something about that?

What are YOU doing about?

Government isn't some magical entity. Government is us. Government is YOU. If you are too lazy to change the system, why do you expect someone else to do it?

If you don't like how government works, enter government and lead the way to improve it. Let's see how far you get. Then you'll understand why it doesn't work.

[Preety_India]

@Flowerfaeiry  do you imagine that a poor obese sick old person is magically going to turn healthy? 

Shouldn't the last resort be to tell them to be at home or wear a mask and social distance? 

 

Your health is your responsibility. Government cannot babysit each and every person. Government will send out basic protection guidelines applicable to all. That's all government will ever do. 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Preety_India

[Consept]

31 minutes ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

I don't understand this trust in the government and news sources that push the effectiveness of these "preventative" measures, but don't say a lick of anything having to do with actual real health. I understand that society just isn't there yet but can't we do something about that? I mean stop the madness with these so called preventative measure which I don't think are doing anything. We have very obese, sick individuals thinking that staying 6ft away from me and wearing a poorly donned mask will protect themselves from getting this virus.  I guess I'm mostly mad about the stupidity. 

Heres a good test, find someone, a friend a family member or even acquaintance, who has what you would consider to be an unhealthy lifestyle, maybe they dont do any exercise or eat junk food for every meal, try and get them to change to super clean, super healthy diet and get them to exercise and meditate regularly. If you do try and even if you are successful you will see how hard it is to get someone to change their ways and this is just on a one to one basis, imagine that times however many million in your country with someone on TV or an advert telling them what to do, its pretty much impossible. In the UK you can even get the gym paid for you if youre unfit and its affecting your health but still we have one of the highest obesity rates in europe  

[Forestluv]

1 hour ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

How do you know this? Have there been studies or observations to prove this type of thing? 

Pathogens have range of contagiousness and severity. The healthiest humans don’t stand a chance against the deadliest pathogens. It would be like putting a human up against a grizzly bear. No chance.

Look at the rabies virus. This virus evolved to evade the immune system and enter the Central Nervous System, which has virtually no defense. If this virus gets in the body, it’s game over. The human gets severely ill, goes insane and dies within 10 days. It would be a incorrect to think that as long as I have a healthy mind-body, I don’t need to worry about that raccoon foaming at the mouth from biting me. It’s best to run like hell and get a gun. 

Yet that is at the extreme end. Other pathogens, like coronavirus aren’t nearly as severe. Here, a combination of having a healthy mind-body, combined with mitigation efforts are best. 

1 hour ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

I don't understand this trust in the government and news sources that push the effectiveness of these "preventative" measures, but don't say a lick of anything having to do with actual real health. 

If there is a rabies epidemic, it doesn't seem fair to criticize the rabies control team. Sure, general health practices are important, yet that isnt the role of the rabies control team. 

1 hour ago, Flowerfaeiry said:

I mean stop the madness with these so called preventative measure which I don't think are doing anything. We have very obese, sick individuals thinking that staying 6ft away from me and wearing a poorly donned mask will protect themselves from getting this virus.  I guess I'm mostly mad about the stupidity. 

Viral mitigation efforts do reduce viral spread and impact. They can get the Ro under 1.0 and under control. Look at New Zealand. The entire country came together with mitigation and they are now covid-free and re-opened. Ir look at Kansas U.S.A. Half the counties decided to have voluntary mitigation (which most did not follow) and half the counties had mandatory mitigation. The virus spread like wildfire in counties without mitigation and and decreased in counties with mitigation. 

Yet this doesn’t mean every mitigation policy is effective. Telling people to wear a mask in the shower would not be an effective strategy. 

There are a variety of health concerns in so society. Viruses, obesity, stress, trauma. Sure there are neglected illnesses that ate worthy of more attention. How we use our resources is an important question in public heath. About 80% of global resources go toward illnesses that only affect 20% of the worlds population. As well, governments are engaged and in all sorts of exploitation for profit. Coca Cola  is has most of Central / South America addicted to high fructose corn syrup and controls markets through unethical asymmetric power dynamics. Yet these are separate issues than addressing covid. I agree that more attention and light should be directed at these health concerns and perhaps there is too much attention on covid, yet imo it’s not fair to say mitigation efforts are stupid and ineffective. This mentality is making it harder to mitigate covid. The virus life cycle doesn’t care what people think of masks, social distancing, ppe, economic collapse etc. The viral contagion increases with: high density humans, maskless, indoors, poor ventilation. If all humans were able to sit still 20ft+ apart for two weeks, the virus would be eradicated. This isnt feasible for humans, yet mitigation does reduce the contagion.

As a society, we need to establish what extent of mitigation is feasible. In New Zealand and parts of Australia, they reached very high, effective levels of mitigation because everyone came together and mitigated. And they had very strong leadership from the top that gave accurate information, clear guidelines and prevented misinformation. Yet in places like the U.S., there is a misinformation rampant including from the top, massive numbers of people are misinformed, sucked into conspiracy theories and have deep mistrust of scientists, experts, media and government. And there is an intense libertarian streak of “you’re not the boss of me!”, that they will rebel against any mitigation effort, including something as simple as wearing a mask and socially distancing in a grocery store. This is the opposite scenario as New Zealand. 

[oMarcos]

 government will never tell you how to take care for yourself. thankfully

[Heart of Space]

It is their job to regulate health issues, which is why there is the FDA for example, or public schooling with health related curriculum.

The argument is how far they should go in this regard.  Socialist countries tend to ban more unhealthy food ingredients for example.

Dare I say, but the more dictatorial our government would be on health issues, the better.  Assuming the approach was coming from a high level understanding of health.  They could start by banning unhealthy fast food, I'd get behind that.  Fuck fast food.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Heart of Space

[Village]

On 12/15/2020 at 7:23 PM, Carl-Richard said:

Get yo antivaxx ass out of here 

Is this supposed to be an insult? I don't get it 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Village

[Carl-Richard]

46 minutes ago, Village said:

Is this supposed to be an insult? I don't get it 

It's more like a light-hearted nudge.