Introduction
The Surgeon General of the United States has just issued a warning about the dangers of unhealthy eating habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eating unhealthy foods can increase your risk of becoming infected with the virus, as well as increase the severity of the symptoms if you do become infected. The Surgeon General has urged people to make healthier food choices and to avoid processed and sugary foods. This article will provide an overview of the Surgeon General’s warning and offer tips on how to make healthier food choices during the pandemic.
Surgeon General Just Issued This COVID Warning — Eat This Not That
The Surgeon General has issued a warning about the potential dangers of eating certain foods during the COVID-19 pandemic. The warning comes as the virus continues to spread across the United States and the world.
The Surgeon General has urged people to avoid eating foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt. These foods can increase the risk of developing serious health complications from the virus, such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
The Surgeon General also recommends eating more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. These foods are packed with essential vitamins and minerals that can help boost the immune system and protect against the virus.
In addition to eating healthy, the Surgeon General also recommends getting plenty of exercise and getting enough sleep. Exercise can help boost the immune system and reduce stress, while getting enough sleep can help the body fight off infections.
The Surgeon General’s warning is a reminder that eating healthy is an important part of staying healthy during the pandemic. Eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise can help protect against the virus and reduce the risk of serious health complications.
During a busy coronavirus news week—which included parents getting vaccines for their kids aged 5 to 11 and the development of two pills proven effective as therapeutics—there was news that concerned experts: Legal challenges to a planned mandate for companies with more than 100 employees to get vaccines, and cases plateauing (not going down) and stuck at 75,000 a day. With this in mind, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the nation’s Surgeon General, appeared on This Week opposite Martha Raddatz to tell you how to be safe, and he had a warning. Read on for five essential points that can save your life—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had COVID.
A court just put a temporary hold on President’s Biden rule that businesses with more than 100 employees should mandate vaccines for their employees (scheduled to go into effect by January 4th). Dr. Murthy said, despite legal challenges, “the president and the administration wouldn’t have put these requirements in place that they didn’t think that they were appropriate and necessary,” he said. “And the administration is certainly prepared to defend them. But let’s step back for a moment and just look at why these are so important throughout our history. We’ve seen that we have used the vaccine requirements to protect the population started back when George Washington, in fact, when he required troops to be inoculated for a smallpox—late 1800s, schools started having vaccine and requirements. When you think about the workplace in particular, it’s so important that our workplaces are safe. That workers feel safe there, that customers also feel safe. And we know that at this point in the pandemic, when we’ve come so far, but we still have 75,000 cases a day, and it’s important. We take every measure possible to make our workplace safer. It’s good for people’s health. It’s good for the economy. And that’s why these requirements make sense.”
“What’s your response to those who say this is an overreach and, and will hurt the economy?” asked Raddatz about the business mandates. “I’ll tell you what I hear time and time again, from small businesses, large businesses and workers is that what’s really hurting the economy is actually COVID itself,” said Dr. Murthy. “Millions of workers have gotten sick because of COVID and unpredicted predictably been pulled out of work millions more that had to be quarantined and think about how disruptive that’s been to businesses. And one of the reasons why you see thousands of companies actually already moving forward with requirements even before the federal deadline was because they’ve realized how important and helpful it is for the health of their workers and for the health of their businesses to have everyone vaccinated. Finally, just keep this in mind. These are not new, you know, in, in addition to having done these, historically in modern times, we can require vaccines for the military. We’ve required vaccines in hospital systems. The ones that I worked in as well, there are times where we recognize that our decisions have a broader effect on people around us. COVID does reminded us of that. And that’s why having these types of requirements and workplaces will be not only helpful, but it’s a necessary step to accelerate our pathway out of the pandemic.”
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Might smaller companies also be required to mandate the vaccine in the future? “Certainly nothing is up at table at this moment,” said Dr. Murthy, but added “that the focus right now is on te implementing the current rule that OSHA pronounced. Let me just emphasize that these rules actually work. What we’ve seen in a report issued recently was that on average businesses with these requirements in place, had 20% increase in vaccination rates, often boosting them into the 90s. So if we realize that we’ve had over the past year, that vaccination is our one of our key pathways out of this pandemic. These requirements, we’ll do a lot to get us to where the finish line.”
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One new antiviral COVID pill can reduce death “by 89% in high risk individuals,” said Raddatz, who wondered about the impact. “Well, that was certainly very good news, Martha,” said Murthy, who mentioned pills from Merck and Pfizer. “Keep in mind that this these trials were that Pfizer announced recently, these were young people who are higher risk and it reduced their risk of hospitalization and death by 89%,” said Murthy. “But two critical things to keep in mind here. One is that these medicines still have to be fully evaluated by the FDA before they’re made available. But the second is that there is a 100% effective strategy to avoid hospitalization and death. And that’s not getting COVID in the first place, which is why taking appropriate precautions and getting vaccinated still must be at the heart of our strategy. A therapeutic a pill is not a substitute for getting vaccinated.”
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Follow the public health fundamentals and help end this pandemic, no matter where you live—get vaccinated ASAP; if you live in an area with low vaccination rates, wear an N95 face mask, don’t travel, social distance, avoid large crowds, don’t go indoors with people you’re not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don’t visit any of these 35 Places You’re Most Likely to Catch COVID.