At this moment, 245,578 Americans have tragically lost their lives to COVID-19. Although the entire world has been struck by this devastating virus, such a high number of cases and deaths has distinguished the United States not only as the leading nation in the pandemic’s toll, but also as the one most criticized as failing its citizens. After the historic presidential election, and with Joe Biden as president-elect, our country and the world are closely watching and wondering whether we’ll be able to turn our COVID response around.

The media, and the rest of us, can’t really come to a consensus on why the U.S. has been plagued worse than most countries. Some claim that President Trump’s, and his administration’s, failure to adequately institute social distancing and mask mandates at a national level are the reason for our staggering numbers. Others posit that a deficiency of empathy and an individualistic mindset in America are the reason why we’ve come to accept the fate of this pandemic. Many others still question whether we’re at fault at all, citing the Chinese government’s lack of transparency about the virus early-on as our source of peril. But largely overlooked by politicians across the spectrum, and by virtually all mainstream media, are several factors which place a person at major risk of dying from COVID. The frequency of some of those underlying medical conditions doomed our nation to a high death toll from the beginning.

Among the list of health conditions which place an individual at significant risk of dying from COVID, obesity is among the most threatening. According to new CDC data, obesity increases the risk of death by about 48 percent -- a disturbing statistic. Pairing that number with the prevalence of obesity in the U.S., where a shocking 40 percent of adults are obese, it’s safe to say that in addition to COVID, we have been facing a food issue for quite some time now. While obesity in itself is a major risk factor, it also poses an increased risk for other health conditions which similarly make people more vulnerable to COVID: diabetes, heart disease, a weakened immune system, and perhaps asthma, among others. Discourse on this issue has been highly stigmatized, which may explain why there is so little coverage of and focus on how our nation’s general health would naturally have affected our death rate, no matter how we handled the initial outbreak.

None of this is to say that our government’s early, and current, response to COVID shouldn’t be analyzed and criticized. We have an obligation to continuously question the actions and efforts of our government at both the national and local levels, and to demand policy changes as deemed fit. But it isn’t productive to simply name-call and assign blame to politicians and governmental entities without addressing a health issue which has affected the American population for so long. Our discomfort when speaking of this issue does our nation a disservice, because even after COVID is long gone, it will persist and will continue to harm the health of millions.

When we think about COVID and how to improve our response, we cannot conveniently ignore the fact that our population is already disproportionately unhealthy as compared with many other countries. Politicians on both sides of the political discourse have distracted us from, and divided us about, fundamental issues in American health care. Whether you favor universal health coverage or private insurance, obesity and related conditions lie at the root of a large percentage of our health concerns. We must join together as a nation to think of more productive and long-lasting solutions to address this massive health problem, rather than simply dismiss it as an uncomfortable topic.