OPINION: My friend was scared to death of Corona. He told me to get a colonoscopy.

My friend is well past age 45, when experts suggest colonoscopies should be part of a routine medical screening regimen. However, he is not an exemplary child when it comes to following doctor’s orders. In fact, he pays almost no attention to the doctors.

Still, he took every possible COVID precaution early on in the pandemic, from avoiding almost all contact with others to continuing to wear a mask in public. Of course, he was vaccinated and his immunity improved.

My mantra about Corona got me thinking a lot about how people like him, and Americans as a whole, have behaved with such concerns about the virus. And rightly so. To date, more than 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 and more than 6.5 million have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nonetheless, it is surprising to consider how we became aware of COVID-19. This is probably the most striking statistic. According to the CDC, 81.4% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. And for people over 65, one of the most vulnerable groups, the figure is 95%.

Now let’s look at some important and troubling non-COVID statistics that reveal our broader attitudes toward health. According to the CDC, about 42% of Americans are obese, and for some populations, that figure rises to nearly 50%. Remember: Obesity is linked to many serious illnesses, including becoming seriously ill from COVID-19.

Or how about that? Infant mortality rates, while still relatively low compared to many (but not all) other countries, actually increased in 2022, according to a new report from the National Vital Statistics System. The report pointed out that this was the first time this had happened in 20 years.

But as long as we compare ourselves to the rest of the world, here’s what surprised me the most. When it comes to the overall health of the population, the United States doesn’t even rank in the top 10 in some surveys. It ranked 35th in Bloomberg’s 2019 Global Health Index.^Day. According to the latest report by CEOWORLD magazine, we are ranked 45th. “USA! USA! USA!”

A book could be written about the reasons for this, and indeed many people have done so. But as we spoke with medical professionals who pay close attention to these issues, one cause quickly emerged. In other words, our health care system is much more geared toward responding to disease than preventing it.

“We are structurally set up to be reactive rather than proactive,” said Matt Fellowes, CEO of healthcare platform BellSant.

Almost every emergency room doctor will tell you that they see it firsthand every day. Many of the cases they treat involve patients who do not have a regular doctor or whose problems were not identified until they became serious. Consider an obese person currently lying in the emergency room suffering a heart attack.

Of course, underneath it all, experts agree, we are not funding our public health programs at adequate levels. As a result, we are making it more difficult and expensive for many people to find the care they need. And we don’t effectively inform people so they know what to do to protect their health in the first place.

So how did we get COVID-19 right? This is an example of a public health program living up to its ideals and receiving adequate funding, experts say. Think about how the vaccine became widely available and you could get it at almost any time, almost any day of the week, especially in the early days. Think about the messages we continually receive about social distancing.

The difference with Corona, though, is that you can’t avoid hearing about it. I had three friends whose parents died from COVID. Or as Dr. John Roberts, a Los Angeles-based emergency room physician and emergency medicine consultant for the global disaster relief health nonprofit International Medical Corps, told me: “The awareness of that took care of itself.”

But does this make other health problems less of a concern? After all, about 52,000 Americans are expected to die from colon cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society. And it is the worst kind of killer in that it is a silent killer. Often you won’t know you have it until you can’t do anything about it. Unless you have a colonoscopy.

I am not holding myself out as a paradigm of healthy behavior. I have been obese for most of my adult life. At least until recently. My exercise habits weren’t ideal until recently. However, I will tell you that I had a colonoscopy and other necessary tests when my doctor recommended it.

But this isn’t about me. It’s about how Americans have treated COVID-19 as the ultimate threat to their health – the bogeyman of medical devices – without caring about countless other diseases and conditions, including some that are completely preventable. And the last thing I want to do is make light of Corona. It is important to note that he recovered relatively quickly from his previous bouts, especially considering the harmful presence of long-term Corona. that. You can’t say that about heart attacks in general.

In that respect, my friend, who was so worried about COVID-19, easily overcame the virus when he first contracted it early this year.

Now if only I could convince him to get a colonoscopy.

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