Health Begets Health

Here are the largest private health insurance companies in the USA, along with their market share and revenue:

– UnitedHealth Group: 15.7% market share, $215 billion revenue
– Elevance Health (Anthem): 9.7% market share, $133 billion revenue
– Kaiser Permanente: 9.2% market share, $126 billion revenue
– Centene (Ambetter): 8.6% market share, $116 billion revenue
– Humana: 7.3% market share, $100 billion revenue

US private health insurance companies are a useful component in the ecosystem of health care provision. They only exist to enrich themselves and are built to continuously increase profit for their shareholders which means delivering the least amoung of health provision to their customers. A single-payer system would enhance healthcare access, and it would be significantly less expensive, simply by eliminating the unnecessary middle-man that is private health insurance. It’s that easy for the USA.

Despite what internet consiracy theorists (read most Republicans/Conservatives) are trying to purport, the efficacy of wearing well fitted n95 masks is naerly 100%. That’s right, wearing a mask work really really well as the primary measure to mitigate infections. Why aren’t more wearing it? A combination of cultural issues where wearing a mask is considered countercultural, and simply the unwillingness to stay healthy. Most folks would prefer to get sick constantly in the never-ending carousel of inheriting more and more disabling sicknesses from repeated viral infections.

Wear your mask!

Study link: https://sph.umd.edu/news/study-shows-n95-masks-near-perfect-blocking-escape-airborne-covid-19

One doctor made one superfulous claim with questionable data and the supplement industry used him to sell billions in vitamin D. Here’s more:

https://news.immunologic.org/p/vitamin-d-can-we-finally-stop-beating

The wellness industry is a convergence of logical fallacies, lack of regulatory oversight, financial motives, and preying on the desire to do what’s best for our health. It brings in $5.6 Trillion every year and is wildly unregulated. Products range from relatively benign (vitamin supplements) to the seriously harmful (IV infusions, ozone enemas, urotherapy). Many utilize a common tactic in pseudoscience: make claims based on a grain of truth, and this will give you immediate credibility.

Vitamin D is a poster child of this. Yes, it’s an essential micronutrient. Yes, it is critical for key cellular processes. Yes, deficiencies can cause issues like rickets.

One of the worst public healthcare disasters of our generation, perhaps even century, is the communication surrounding COVID-19. Namely, that COVID IS airborne, yet communicated by most public health officials with droplet precautions; and that COVID is no more harmful than the flu, which is also false. COVID-19 is SARS. The flu is the flu. The two shall never meet. The long-term damages of COVID-19, particularly in the vulnerable and those who continuously get the virus with repeated sickness, are mounting without clear tracking of both damages and scale in the population. Couple that along with cultural attitudes that the pandemic is over and widespread masking (or any masking for that matter) is no longer needed nor valued, and the continuation of a deadly and rapidly disabling disease continues to proliferate.

Continue reading “Wave after Wave of Covid Infections Continue”

How do public health policies in different countries impact COVID-19 deaths? Turns out a LOT. The “Let er rip” attitude prevalent in many Western nations appears deadly. But at least there’s more ‘freedom’?

The summer wave of Monkeypox seems to have waned six months later with cases dropping to around an annual low. The six month decline is now consistent, basing for what could possibly be another increase in the Spring and Summer months. With the continued rise of COVID and its variants, and the known damage it inflicts on the immune system, it is not outside of the realm of reason or immunology to expect case numbers to rise. The question will be, how high will they go? Past the 2022 high watermark? The US and the world will ind out in 3-6 months, and perhaps a notable trend direction change in a month or two.

Chart shows the uptick from Christmas related to COVID reported cases. Note, many jurisdictions including the USA and Canada no longer have widespread testing or reporting. This is a phenomenon to get the public to accept the ongoing harm. It also make sit hard for the general public to get a sense of the real-time COVID-19 danger in a particular area without good data. Wastewater testing data is one tool but it is merely one.

Currently, an expanding population in most countries that fall into the “done with COVID-19” segment. Part of this is attributed to cumulative exhaustion. We all would prefer to move on with our lives despite the relative risk. However, there exists a denial where the notion of “risk” is down-played by the “COVID is just the flu” crowd. This position has been completely debunked yet the rumors/idea persists largely due to ineffective public health messaging. Politicians have a short-term outlook on their own careers, and even more left-leaning science-based political parties are doing away with COVID-19 messaging including public mask wearing.

So where does this take us?

Continue reading “2023 COVID Variants to Complicate Pandemic Response”

A week after the WHO declared monkeypox a word health emergency (as they did with COVID) governments around the world are following suit, including the United States.

Temporary Recommendations issued by the WHO Director-General in relation to the multi-country outbreak of monkeypox
https://www.who.int/news/item/23-07-2022-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-(ihr)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-multi-country-outbreak-of-monkeypox

Cases in the US are approaching 10000 as vaccine acquisition ramps up.

Continue reading “Monkeypox Declared World Health Emergency”

NBC news is among the first major news outlets to release and confirm the dubious distinction that America has hit 1 million COVID-19 related deaths. That doesn’t not include the related deaths because of the lack of healthcare resources, and permanent disabilities incurred because of the virus. In just over two years the death toll has risen exponentially, attributed both to the unwillingness of many American from getting the free vaccine, and curtailing public health measures.

For more:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covids-toll-us-reaches-1-million-deaths-unfathomable-number-rcna22105

By the middle of February, most modelling predicts that at least 50% of Americans will have been infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

This prediction is based on infection rate, whereas many states are showing possibilities of peak infection. That only means, however, that we’re at the mid-way point of this particular infectious wave.

Case counts for the US appear to have peaked at a 7-day average of 806k on Jan 14. Omicron grew from approximately 35k daily cases on Dec 14 to ~800k daily cases in ~4 weeks. 1/9 pic.twitter.com/D1Y6R58SjN

— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) January 20, 2022

Continue reading “50% of All Americans Will Be Infected with Omicron”