God I keep hearing this. Most heart disease can be prevented or delayed by decades by smoking cessation. Some cancers similarly. We spend huge amount of man power and money on cancer research so I don't know how that is ignoring it.
The cardiac, pulmonary, and endocrine disease burden tied to air pollution throws a monkey wrench in that, and air pollution kills many times more people per year than even COVID-19 has[0][1].
Humans suck at assessing dangers soberly.
Another example: the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA in the U.S. exist solely because 3,000 people died one day. Significantly less is being done as 3,000 people now die per day.
And similar for covid, without lifestyle based co morbidity the fatality rate would be a lot lower.
We have over reacted to covid. No one ever puts it into perspective appropriately flinging around non relative numbers left and right and pulling on misplaced compassion. Hats decisions needed to be made and we decided to punish the healthy and young to save the old and sick, and whether or not you like it put like that it's the truth of it.
> we decided to punish the healthy and young to save the old and sick
You're saying that like it's a bad thing. Isn't protecting the weak and vulnerable the entire point of living in a society?
Not to mention all the economic "punishment" the young have taken in the US could have been largely mitigated with proper stimulus programs instead of ceaseless Fed money-printing.
No smoking, better(also less) eating and more physical activity would cure probably 80-90% of these... for some reason, that's too much to ask for from so many folks because some blah blah excuses, like anybody would care about those.
And its not about perfection, any sustained attempt will bring almost immediate massive benefits in quality of life and happiness. One day our descendants will be looking at us as primitive stupid self harming apes
