If you really want to freak yourself out watch the Netflix series Pandemic. Diseases can spread faster than the Gangnam Style video and have, although hard to believe, even more, serious deleterious effects. Watching it in the middle of an outbreak just adds to the mood.
Pandemic shows just how fragile we are. One measly (see what I did there) virus has the power to rid the Earth of us. The ecosystem/universe/god whatever you want to call it has many methods of human culling including natural disasters, flying space rocks, food, and each other.
For reference, coronavirus has taken 4,000 lives thus far and the flu averages 12,000 – 61,000 per year. Now, these have the ability to exponentially spread and wreak havoc and are not nor will likely ever be done with their plight, but let’s look at a few things that are killing humans by multiples more than coronavirus and the flu.
Sugary drinks alone kill 184,000 per year.
According to Reuters, “eleven million deaths worldwide in 2017 were linked to people eating poor diets high in sugar, salt and processed meat that contributed to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, a global study found.“
According to the CDC “worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 7 million deaths per year.”
I could go on, but I won’t. There are things in life we control like the foods we eat, the actions we take, and the habits we form and then there are things we can’t control like the flu and coronavirus.
We are often worried about the things we cannot control while being killed by the things we can control. If you are scared to death of catching the coronavirus while eating your donut and drinking your soda while watching the American average of 3 hours and 58 minutes of TV per day playing your role in the 77% of Americans who do not get the recommended amount of exercise then I recommend you take a look at your priorities.
If you are controlling everything you have the power to control then you already know what I am about to say. Preparation is your best bet for prevention. The healthier you are the less likely you are to get sick, the faster you will get healthy if you do get sick, and the less severe the sickness will be. The more prepared you are financially, physically, and environmentally the better able to deal with sickness if it does strike.
Of course, there are no guarantees in life. Any of us no matter how healthy can get sick, die from a natural disaster, etc. Just because bad things can and likely will happen to us does not make it a valid excuse for not doing everything we can to prevent those things.
Preparation and prevention are your best bet for a long healthy and happy life.
A few actions to take:
Wash your hands, sneeze into your shirt, stay home when you are sick, eat your fruits and vegetables, get 8 hours of sleep per night, exercise daily, stay away from processed foods, love, give, be grateful.