America has a collective drinking problem. And an eating problem. This is all made worse by Americans propensity to sit at home watching TV or playing video games. A recent study has found that deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis have more than tripled in 20 years. In 1999 alcoholic cirrhosis killed 6,007 Americans or about 3.3 per 100,000 adults. By 2019 the death rate had risen to 10.6 per 100,000. Keep in mind this is only for adults aged 25 to 85+
Category: Direct Primary Care
The Battle of Waterloo Created a Public Health Crisis: the Solution was Fertilizer
Last Saturday was the 207th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, fought on Sunday, June 18, 1815. It was the decisive battle that ended Napoleon Bonaparte’s imperial ambitions for good. The battle was the culmination of nearly 20 years of conflict in Europe. As you would imagine, it created a public health crisis. An estimated 50,000 casualties, dead, dying and wounded were left on the battlefield when it was over. Some diseases can be transmitted from the dead to the living. According to the World Health Organization:
- Tuberculosis can be acquired if the bacillus is aerosolized – residual air in lungs exhaled, fluid from lungs spurted up through the nose or mouth during handling of the corpse.
- Bloodborne viruses can be transmitted via direct contact of non-intact skin or mucous membrane from splashing of blood or body fluid or from injury from bone fragments and needles.
- Gastrointestinal (GI) infections can easily be transmitted from faeces leaked from dead bodies. Transmission occurs via the faecal–oral route through direct contact with the body, soiled clothes or contaminated vehicles or equipment. GI infections can also be spread as a result of contamination of the water supply with dead bodies.
Monday Links
- The liberal plantation? Washington, D.C., has the largest gap in racial economic equality, compared to the 50 states. The capital also has the largest median income, homelessness rate, unemployment rate, and labor force participation gaps. Study.
- Why has health care been relatively unimpacted by general inflation?
- Poll: One in ten men would like to be cloned
- Why did Biden agree to let China (and other “developing countries”) steal our intellectual property with respect to Covid vaccines?
- A column by New York Times’ David Leonhardt made a bold claim: “The death rate for white Americans has recently exceeded the rates for Black, Latino and Asian Americans.” The claim is almost assuredly wrong.
What Sweden Got Right
Swedish students under the age of 16 didn’t miss a single day of school to COVID closure and were never masked. According to this study:
- No COVID-19 related learning loss in reading in Swedish primary school students.
- The proportion of students with weak reading skills did not increase during the pandemic.
- Students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds were not especially affected.
HT: Committee to Unleash Prosperity