[taxicabjesus]

I clicked your link, then followed to "if you are sick" [1], and found the advice to be non-helpful for helping people prevent and recover from viral sicknesses.

I'm interested in advice to help people become more 'resilient' against viruses:

> resilient [adj] 1. Capable of returning to an original shape or position, as after having been compressed. See Synonyms at flexible. 2. Able to recover readily, as from misfortune. -https://www.thefreedictionary.com/resilient

I proposed that Zinc might be helpful. Vitamin-D is also indicated on account of the season. Vitamin-B1 may be indicated for people who smoke and/or live in an area with especially polluted air (Wuhan, northern Italy).

The experts should be telling us what to eat and how else to take better care of ourselves while we're sick. But they default to 'don't catch the virus, if you do you'll probably be fine, if not hopefully the medical system will help.' Why can't they give more helpful advice?

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/st...

[skylanh]

Because that's too complicated a message to send.

At a broad, high level, the message has to be simple and direct: stop (modes of) transmission (touching eyes, washing hands, being around people), quarantine yourself, self-isolate yourself, just stop!

Those simple and direct actions cover everything they need. Maybe that's pareto's principle.

Getting into vitamins, whatever, minor optimizations, how do you propose that works when literally everyone understands "America has an obesity problem--stop eating so much", and yet there America is.

[taxicabjesus]

> At a broad, high level, the message has to be simple and direct:

"Vitamin D is the sunlight vitamin. Eat liver, or take a supplement, in the winter when the sun has gone away."

> Getting into vitamins, whatever, minor optimizations, how do you propose that works

The CDC could simplify the actual findings of science to something understandable for most people.

> when literally everyone understands "America has an obesity problem--stop eating so much", and yet there America is.

This explanation -- 'people eat too much' -> obesity -- is simplistic. Sometimes people eat too much, but most of America's weight problem stems from the food industry's misapplication of science. My father and his wife have extra weight mostly because they eat meat-based diets complemented with industrial starches (boxed chips, crackers, pancakes, fake syrup, etc). They eat salads, but only when they're coated with large servings of industrial salad dressings (soybean oil is cheap).

Maintenance pharmaceuticals put a lot of weight on people too.

The war on butter was quietly abandoned by the powers that be. The food industry quietly reformulated some of their worst products to remove trans fats, but there's still a lot of terrible foods on the grocery stores' shelves.

The obesity epidemic is evidence of crimes against the public's health.