Graham wrote:
It has been politically unacceptable in the UK for some time now to issue health advice along the lines of “stop eating crap, take some proper exercise and sort your life out”, but perhaps that is exactly what is needed here.
It has? That’s news to me. The NHS website has advice on exactly this and they have been long pushing that people do at least 150 minutes of exercise a week. This message has also been broadcast on TV and radio too.
MedEwok wrote:
It absolutely is a critical risk factor. Smoking alone reduces the outcome significantly, if you have COPD, Asthma or lung cancer you are also less likely to survive Covid-19.One of the first and most sensible public health action might have been an outright ban and confiscation of all cigarettes and tobacco products, but then again that would probably have generated rampant mobs of smokers with withdrawal symptoms…
Agree, you have to go with what is workable. Banning smoking would never work.
I don’t see any reason not to issue advice along the lines of ‘improve your cardiovascular fitness to improve your chances of surviving Covid-19’. More people than ever are now getting outdoors for ‘exercise’ because it is the only thing other than food shopping or work they are allowed out for.
But of course ‘exercise’ means different things to different people. Many people are now getting out for walks who previously never did and obviously from a fitness perspective it is better than not doing it, but unless you’re obese walking does not get your heart rate up to 150+ and set you on a steep curve of improving cardiovascular fitness, which is my definition of exercise. I walk several miles each day with my dog, obviously before the lockdown and during, but I don’t view that as exercise.
People who are healthy but unfit can make massive improvements very quickly. If you run say 1km on the first day and increase by 0.5km (or keep distance same but increase pace) every few days then after only two or three weeks you will be completely transformed. But of course, like quitting smoking, this requires willpower.
LeSving wrote:
This was on TV yesterday, in a discussion program
Also have to mention. In the same program, numbers of deaths from influenza vs deaths from covid-19 shows very clearly that in a normal influenza season, more people die per day from influenza than people who die per day from covid-19. Don’t remember the numbers, but it was a factor 3-4. Clearly the measures have worked, but also, seen in perspective, there are other stuff we have been getting used to that are equally dangerous and fatal.
alioth wrote:
The NHS website has advice on exactly this and they have been long pushing that people do at least 150 minutes of exercise a week. This message has also been broadcast on TV and radio too.
Yes, but it’s a soft push – a nudge – and always has been. There is a distinct reluctance to give people a hard, in-your-face message about how being fat and getting no exercise is really, really bad for you.
GPs don’t level with their frequent-flyer patients about the extent to which their many comorbidities are a result of an unhealthy lifestyle. They tinker around the edges and treat the symptoms, as opposed to going in with a hard-hitting message that if they want a normal life expectancy and quality of life then they need to stop eating 4,000 calories of junk a day (and lying to themselves and others about it) while vegetating on the sofa.
It’s an over-sensitivity issue. Someone’s weight and fitness is entirely in their own hands, yet we treat it like a disability.
I could not agree more. It makes me cringe how the media carefully skirt around this issue.
OTOH if a GP says to a patient that he needs to lose weight because his weight is the cause of most of him/her problems, he gets to spend an hour filling in forms after a complaint has been filed.
I have a feeling we might soon have reached peak panic, as studies like this are appearing:
http://www.urbanphysics.net/Social%20Distancing%20v20_White_Paper.pdf local copy
Towards aerodynamically equivalent COVID19 1.5 m social distancing for walking and running
The equivalent social distance for walking and running in the slipstream is defined as the distance that should be kept between the leading and trailing walker/runner to avoid substantial exposure to slipstream droplets, similar to the case where two people are standing still at 1.5 m distance. In the absence of head wind, tail wind and cross-wind, for walking fast at 4 km/h this distance is about 5 m and for running at 14.4 km/h this distance is about 10 m.
This reminds me of the Eyafjallajökull “ash cloud” that prompted Morocco to close their airspace to a group of club (piston) aircraft on a flyout based on some aerodynamic simulations…
Graham wrote:
while vegetating on the sofa
Ironic how we’re promoting this as the best strategy to combat this respiratory disease though, completely ignoring the long-term health effects.
Off_Field wrote:
See for instance London Mayor S. Kahn who said “There is no risk in using the Tube or buses or other forms of public transport or going to a concert.”Anyone with a few brain cells can see clearly dense public congregation areas carry a risk.
He also made the insane decision to reduce train frequencies to keep congestion constant and even increase it…
Peter wrote:
In hindsight it seems a stupid policy but it was done as a part of a stampede to clear hospital beds for some huge numbers of virus patients.
I too find this policy quite problematic, because it is based on the assumption that they can be isolated in the care home, and that staff in the care home does not carry the virus from them to others – which is a bit theoretical (BTW – you can read it here.); but not sure what the alternative is. One would be to build quarantine centres for the infected, but not ill enough to need intensive care…
Rwy20 wrote:
Ironic how we’re promoting this as the best strategy to combat this respiratory disease though, completely ignoring the long-term health effects.
Are we? Our local government has explicitly allowed and promoted walking/jogging outside, as long as you maintain adequate distance to others doing so. Many people are outdoors in this weather, with uninterrupted CAVOK for weeks now…
MedEwok wrote:
Are we?
We are being bombarded with this message for a few weeks now by the Federal Office of Health (!):
