Pretty sure if it weren’t for the fortunate circumstances of my birth, I would have wound up being addicted to cigarettes.
Interestingly, on that approach you and RFK Jr. agree. I guess where you disagree is who does and does not count as an expert.
So what exactly are you advocating for? Status quo wasn’t perfect, but brain worm leads to objectively worse outcomes. He talks a bit about healthy foods and such, but the government doesn’t dare actually do anything about it or they get branded as a “nanny-state”. Everything else he is doing sends us backwards. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts advocating for leeches soon.
Step 1, if you are a democrat, and wanted to compete with MAGA, would be to acknowledge there is a problem. Telling people the same old batch of experts is the way to go is a good way to lose another election. Once you are no longer competing on what the problem is, offer a vision with some proposals.
Not sure if it’s possible to get any traction with that, but it’s worth a try. Has a chance of backfiring though. The type of people who are willing to incorporate this issue into their election calculus are liable to be convinced there is a problem, but then remain unconvinced that you have a viable solution, especially if it involves guidance from actual scientists and physicians. Imo, the panels we have now do a mostly good job that could be improved in some areas. If you point out the problems I think you mostly get anti-vax idiots saying “I told you so” even when the vaccination schedule is not what needs fixing.
Um, what is the “problem,” exactly?
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Up until Covid, life expectancy was generally improving… So I’d say reasonably well with room for improvement.
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You can lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink.
The government provides recommendations on how many calories a day you should at most consume. People routinely ignore them. I don’t think it’s the government’s fault if people are using their freedom to do dumb things and suffer bad health as a result.
Or we’re reaching the physiological constraints on life expectancy. My uncle had a cardiac event, but not a full on heart attack a few years ago at around 65ish. He was in decent shape, but room for improvement. Ended up quitting eating beef and made a number of lifestyle changes and lost some weight. Went back to the doctor and he still figures he’ll die at 86ish. If it’s not the heart, it’s the dementia or the Alzheimer’s or the prostate cancer, etc.
ETA: The other part to remember is a big chunk of the U.S. population has limited and perhaps declining access to the healthcare system which also feeds into the stats.
Yeah there are problems, I think the conventional medicine was largely responsible for the opioid crisis which has devastated the poorest parts of America.
Then when the pandemic hit, it’s like, hey remember us? The people who gave you the pills? Take these shots because they’ll save you from dying of covid, trust us! It’s hard to believe something that’s true from someone who has lied to you before.
I don’t think you have to go back the opioid crisis. I think that people resented lockdowns and masking and thought both were stupid and didn’t want to deal with shots from what they viewed as the people responsible for lockdowns and masks.
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yeah, so stick to the vision and some high level proposals. Avoid getting into the weeds.
There is like a 10 year gap in life expectancy between the highest and lowest ranked states. I am sure it only gets worse the futher you drill down into the cohorts. These differences aren’t due to access to cancer treatments or eating beef. These are the results of lifestyle choices, and I am not convinced it is only middle class and up that have a desire to have a healthy lifestyle.
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Its the lockdowns, the vaccines, the opiods, the insulin fix, the industries that abused the workers and the communities before shutting their doors and moving overseas, that polluted the air and the streams. You are simplifying their resentment to the most recent example. Just call them deplorables and move on.
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A lot of that seems totally unrelated to the actions of the current HHS secretary. Those are things that should be handled by a functioning Congress, but that hasn’t really been possible for a while now. We might be talking past each other here. I agree that addressing those concerns could fit into a broader narrative about the health of Americans.
I’d think a 10 year difference in life expectancy is largely driven by death rates amongst young people (e.g. infant mortality, early onset cancers, deaths due to crime, etc.). Several of those are potentially linked to lack of access to healthcare.
@meep could probably explain the causes
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Opioid deaths.
I think I did a state ranking at one point, but I didn’t break out by cause of death
thanks for the idea – I can do this (it will be by age-adjusted death rate, which is just the flip, of course)
Let me give you the most recent - the data are not complete, so it may be deceptive:
Top 21 states and overall for U.S. (so lowest age-adjusted death rates for 2024, provisional data)
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