this writer presents an opinion i had already been suspecting may have been a contributer;

Before the coronavirus hit in early 2020, a quieter epidemic was already taking its toll across the United States: the near-universal prevalence of diet-­related maladies. More than half of the calories Americans consume come from “ultraprocessed” foods that are shot through with added sugars and fats and are associated with weight gain. Pile those on top of our sedentary lifestyle, and the result is that almost 90 percent of adults have a sign of metabolic dysfunction—including high blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar—and more than 40 percent are obese. In the pandemic’s first five months, the US had a 39 percent higher mortality rate than Europe, where the obesity rate is half ours.

This mess made us vulnerable to the worst aspects of the coronavirus: In the first….read more......