> It's a miracle that the human race has survived this long

It's not a miracle or anything close to that level of implied bafflement (devoid of being able to explain it rationally). We're excellent survivors overall, and a lot more than that. We're very skilled at resource utilization, we're relatively talented at conceptual thinking, we're competent tool builders on a planet ripe for it, we possess the ability to plan far ahead and understand consequences numerous steps out, we have memory capabilities that are quite effective across most of our lifetimes, most of our species is not particularly violent and is generally good natured & friendly (only a very small fraction of the population will ever commit serious acts of violence), we function quite well together in groups/tribes/cities/nations (compounded, shared outcomes), and so on. It's not particularly complicated, despite the doomsayers that will never stop existing amongst us (their mentality says more about them than it does the human race).

If the world wasn't so fat and it was 50 years ago, COVID probably would have been nothing, or the Hong Kong Flu.

The Spanish Flu was over a hundred years ago and hit the world the same way Covid did even though there was no McDonald's or obesity epidemic back then.

Yes but Spanish Flu was really really bad. Affected everyone. Covid is not the Spanish Flu or even the Flu. The flu kills children and is indiscriminate. 80% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid are related to weight.

We should have prioritized health and Vitamin D in April 2020. At that time it was clear it was mainly affecting overweight people. Of course even almost 2 years later people still don't think that as a whole. They say comorbidities. Just say it like it is... it's mostly fat people. The news and society won't say that.

And long covid? The two people I know who had longer term side effects were quite healthy.

Also by some definitions America is “mostly fat people” so your point is not that meaningful to begin with.

You mean post-viral syndrome? I mean yea it's a thing with viruses but it will go away eventually. I had a cold a few years ago and was sick for like 3 months. Some of long covid is mental, so there's that aspect. Some say vaccination can help but that might just play into the mental aspect.

The human mind can create symptoms very easily, especially if every day you get bombarded by social media and news about Covid.

> Also by some definitions America is “mostly fat people” so your point is not that meaningful to begin with

True, but I'm just saying this wouldn't have been an issue 30 - 50 years ago.

> 80% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid are related to weight.

Citation for this? I've never heard this at all.

OK, that says something slightly different. Because 42% of the US population is obese, even if Covid hospitalized completely at random you'd expect 42% of those admitted to be obese (not that obesity is the cause of 42% of admissions). They saw 50% admitted were obese. This implies that being obese increases the risk of hospitalization by ~20%.

But still useful data. Thanks.

I mean I think it says something very blunt. If you're not overweight you probably don't need 5 boosters and you can probably go about your day and play the odds. People still know how to play the odds right, they do it everyday? It's funny to me people are so scared of Covid when they're going to die of Heart Disease or Cancer.

There's just no nuance in any conversation related to Covid.

I honestly don’t think you understand the data even after I explained it to you. Unfortunately this is why even basic headlines get misunderstood by the public.

Let me ask you a question. If weight had absolutely no impact on Covid then what expected percentage of Covid hospitalizations would be with overweight people?

80% of hospitalizations and death globally or in the US specifically?

Globally that is one thing, but if that data point is in the US, then the baseline population is something like 60-70% overweight/obese to begin with. In which case, that elevation from baseline isn’t as significant as implied.

There was a world war distracting resources.

WWI actually caused the epidemic. The first cases appeared in Kansas, and many doughboys were infected at Fort Riley before carrying the illness to Europe. Woodrow Wilson, who lied about staying out of the war until the day after his reelection, may have been the USA president who harmed the world the most.

Spanish Flu definitely not the same severity as COVID, not even close.

Apparently though people's risk perceptions about COVID are wildly off base, by orders of magnitude.

https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-estimat...

40% of US Democrats think COVID hospitalization risk if you're unvaccinated is 50%! Fifty percent! The real answer is less than 1%. Other polls have shown similar things for fatality rates, like estimated 16% IFR on average in France. It really makes me realize why people act in such extreme ways, if that's what they think.

COVID is to a large extent a total failure of our societies ability to disseminate accurate information. Unfortunately this misinformation catastrophe is largely the work of the very same people who are constantly complaining about misinformation.

How is it possible that anyone thinks 50% of all unvaccinated people have been hospitalized -- for just about anything! Seeing polls like this give me so little faith in our ability to make judgments as a country on anything non-trivial.

Is it optimism to settle for any outcome that's better than extinction?

Are you arguing the equivalent of "something increasing the chance of another world war is not a concern, because previous world wars clearly didn't drive humans to extinction"?