That the 2019 Novel Coronavirus — which is also known as COVID-19 or 2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2 or HCoV-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or whatever you want to call it — has wreaked havoc around the world is obviously no secret, as greater than 2.8 million people have died from the confirmed cases worldwide…
This Kills More People Per Year Than The 2019 Novel Coronavirus — and No One Talks About It.
…but something else is so deadly that it is purported to be the fourth biggest killer in the world — and yet no one seems to discuss it.
The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 8.9 million died from ischaemic heart disease in 2019 — which is the leading cause of death worldwide at approximately 16 percent of all deaths worldwide — followed by stroke, which is number two with eleven percent of all deaths worldwide in 2019.
Although the two aforementioned diseases — although not communicable — greatly outpaced the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, which contributed to the deaths of as many as 2,614,600 in the one year since the pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, they are not the topic of this article.
The topic of this article is physical inactivity, which euronews Living claims that is the cause of the deaths of 5.2 million people each year.
⚡️ “5.2 million people die from inactivity each year: what's the solution?” #HealthcareWeekhttps://t.co/qH8WRfhXY4
— Euronews Green (@euronewsgreen) March 30, 2021
That claim seemed somewhat specious; but according to the World Health Organization back on Thursday, February 3, 2011 — yes, greater than ten years ago — that physical inactivity is responsible for:
- Approximately 3.2 million deaths per year — including 2.6 million deaths in low-income and middle-income countries.
- Greater than 670,000 premature deaths of people 60 years of age and younger.
- Being an estimated cause of breast and colon cancer, 27 percent of diabetes, and 30 percent of ischaemic heart disease.
A Look at the Latest Statistics
The latest statistics are that at least 2,787,593 people — or slightly less than 2.19 percent — have died of the minimum of 127,349,248 confirmed cases worldwide, according to this situation dashboard from the World Health Organization pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus…
…and at the same time, at least 2,801,858 people — or slightly less than 2.19 percent — have died of the minimum of 128,125,926 confirmed cases worldwide, according to this situation dashboard from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
At the time this article was written, at least 547,296 people — or slightly greater than 1.81 percent — have died of the minimum of 30,147,895 confirmed cases in the United States, according to this situation dashboard from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pertaining to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus — and with an estimated population of 331,002,651 people, that means that slightly less than 0.16 percent of the population of the United States have died with it.
The population of the world is currently at almost 7.8 billion people. Using the higher statistics from Johns Hopkins University & Medicine, that means that slightly greater than 1.64 percent of the population have confirmed cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus, with slightly greater than 0.03 percent of the population having died with it.
Summary
With countless lockdowns, quarantines, and required isolation which have been forcibly imposed on most of the population of the world at various times over the past 13 months, I have to wonder how much physical inactivity occurred — and how many deaths have occurred — as a result.
I am not even counting suicides and other causes of death which have purportedly been linked to the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic.
I repeatedly hear that “we must listen to the science.” I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. What many people do not seem to understand is that science is much more than a simple conclusion pertaining to only one aspect of an issue. Science is all about debates, experiments, postulates, and proven conclusions — and even then, science can be conflicting with different proven conclusions. For example, remember when we were told for years how bad eggs were to eat due to cholesterol — but now they are good for you when eaten in moderation? Both were claims which have been provided by science…
…so where is the science which provides proven information that living sedentary with physical inactivity as a result of lockdowns, quarantines, and required isolation has contributed to a minimum number of deaths? Has anyone performed a study with proven conclusions? Could the possibility exist that many of the preventive measures which were implemented in an attempt to better control the 2019 Novel Coronavirus may have actually killed more people than the virus itself — especially as physical inactivity is a leading cause of death worldwide? I certainly do not believe that the physical inactivity which resulted from the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic did not contribute to one single death.
That is an aspect of science about which I would like to know, as the number of deaths which were supposedly prevented is only one of many aspects of the overall science pertaining to this pandemic…
…but in the meantime, I will keep taking long walks — as I have done for years, whether traveling or at home — and keeping myself active in other ways whenever possible…
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
