The irrational and counterproductive management of the COVID-19 pandemic is irresponsibly aggravating the comorbidities and jeopardizing humans’ natural and most effective weapon against the new pandemic: long-distance running.
The Irrational Bans on Running
March 11, 2020
By Dr. Sidy Diallo
For starters, COVID-19 is nothing like the medieval plagues, or the Spanish flu that decimated millions of humans. Shamefully, some are using the novel coronavirus to create great panic, distract us from real issues or make big money, while seriously impacting on our daily life and ultimately our mental or physical health. Meanwhile, the influenza virus kills yearly many hundreds thousands, and the chronic diseases are also taking annually the lives of tens of millions, without triggering any headline or raising any alarm.
Secondly, humans should never unjustifiably prevent humans from running a marathon, because, contrary to popular belief, as I explain in my book Running Barefoot for Human Survival, the marathon is not a recreational activity for crazy or exceptional people. It’s about, smartly or instinctively, reconnecting with the primary and vital human activity we should never have stopped doing: long-distance running, for the past three million years to hunt the quadruped animals for food to guarantee the survival our species, today to fend off the devastating and costly chronic diseases. “You three are weighing over a ton,” a doctor told two sisters and their brother who were asking him for help to save their lives in a TV show. That was the day after the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon, while I was packing my luggage in a Downtown LA Hotel, before heading to LAX airport.
Harmful, unnecessary or excessive consumption, including of food, are causing global warming, excess of body mass index (BMI), other chronic diseases and ultimately vulnerability to the novel coronavirus. And long-distance running is the efficient way to prevent these issues. In other words, those—young or elderly—who can run 42.2 km (26.2 miles) are healthier, and therefore less vulnerable to the dreaded virus than those suffering from the chronic pathologies.
Therefore, naively or desperately canceling marathons not only can’t stop COVID-19 from spreading, while further aggravating the panic; but that’s also counterproductive, since the highly contagious and non-containable novel coronavirus is showing a strong link between chronic diseases—caused by unhealthy lifestyle—and the lethality of infected patients. And we have unsurprisingly no vaccine or treatment against it. Yet, local or national authorities are jeopardizing the natural and only effective weapon against the chronic diseases and the coronavirus: long-distance running, which is a modern and fortunate reenactment of persistence hunting. Both are a highly motivating and exiting tribal activity that unites men and women, the young and the elderly. That’s the reason why thousands of humans are so happy to travel from all over the world to form an international big tribe and hunt together on the streets of so many cities.
People are scared to death and paying through the nose for useless N95 respirators, surgical masks or other products. Many are scared to travel or even to get out from their homes. I traveled from Paris to Los Angeles on an almost empty Airbus A 380, and so were the usually very crowded airports. The prospect is nonetheless that the highly contagious virus will end up infecting so many of us, whatever we do or not do. The growing numbers of confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The doomsayers are meanwhile inhumanely celebrating, enjoying their moment of fame or reaping substantial financial benefits because of the panic they’ve created.
We should stop listening to the scaremongers, rather focus on doing our best to protect the most vulnerable, and smartly switch to a healthy lifestyle to prevent the chronic diseases. Sadly, organizers and authorities are canceling races, and therefore preventing the healthy marathoners from doing the right thing, while allowing tens of thousands of people of different—and not necessarily healthy—lifestyles to vent their emotions in some European football (soccer) stadiums. That begs the questions: What’s the rationale, and why preventing the marathoners from running? Well, overconsumption and chronic diseases are very good for business, while prevention is not. The more we consume, the unhealthier we’ll be, and that translates into bigger money for business.
Fortunately, just as the Malta Marathon seven days earlier, the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon rightfully went ahead on schedule, despite all the fuss and frantic panic about a virus that has killed so far only few thousands almost exclusively vulnerable patients. We should therefore praise the race organizer and the city, state and federal institutions and agencies for rightfully holding the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon on March 8, as planned. It was such a great hunting experience with amazing friends and fellow marathoners: Beth Sanden, Caren della Cioppa, Air France flight attendants Jean-Luc Videau and Frédéric Baudet, Dr. Steve Bokobza and 25,000 other members of the wonderful tribe of the day in California.
Regrettably, all my next marathons are already either canceled or postponed: Barcelona (March 15), Seoul (March 22), Roma (March 29), Paris (April 5), etc. Was the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon the last victory against the overwhelming panic lobby?
Related Article: Coping With the Coronavirus (March 17, 2020)
By Dr. Sidy Diallo
For starters, COVID-19 is nothing like the medieval plagues, or the Spanish flu that decimated millions of humans. Shamefully, some are using the novel coronavirus to create great panic, distract us from real issues or make big money, while seriously impacting on our daily life and ultimately our mental or physical health. Meanwhile, the influenza virus kills yearly many hundreds thousands, and the chronic diseases are also taking annually the lives of tens of millions, without triggering any headline or raising any alarm.
Secondly, humans should never unjustifiably prevent humans from running a marathon, because, contrary to popular belief, as I explain in my book Running Barefoot for Human Survival, the marathon is not a recreational activity for crazy or exceptional people. It’s about, smartly or instinctively, reconnecting with the primary and vital human activity we should never have stopped doing: long-distance running, for the past three million years to hunt the quadruped animals for food to guarantee the survival our species, today to fend off the devastating and costly chronic diseases. “You three are weighing over a ton,” a doctor told two sisters and their brother who were asking him for help to save their lives in a TV show. That was the day after the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon, while I was packing my luggage in a Downtown LA Hotel, before heading to LAX airport.
Harmful, unnecessary or excessive consumption, including of food, are causing global warming, excess of body mass index (BMI), other chronic diseases and ultimately vulnerability to the novel coronavirus. And long-distance running is the efficient way to prevent these issues. In other words, those—young or elderly—who can run 42.2 km (26.2 miles) are healthier, and therefore less vulnerable to the dreaded virus than those suffering from the chronic pathologies.
Therefore, naively or desperately canceling marathons not only can’t stop COVID-19 from spreading, while further aggravating the panic; but that’s also counterproductive, since the highly contagious and non-containable novel coronavirus is showing a strong link between chronic diseases—caused by unhealthy lifestyle—and the lethality of infected patients. And we have unsurprisingly no vaccine or treatment against it. Yet, local or national authorities are jeopardizing the natural and only effective weapon against the chronic diseases and the coronavirus: long-distance running, which is a modern and fortunate reenactment of persistence hunting. Both are a highly motivating and exiting tribal activity that unites men and women, the young and the elderly. That’s the reason why thousands of humans are so happy to travel from all over the world to form an international big tribe and hunt together on the streets of so many cities.
People are scared to death and paying through the nose for useless N95 respirators, surgical masks or other products. Many are scared to travel or even to get out from their homes. I traveled from Paris to Los Angeles on an almost empty Airbus A 380, and so were the usually very crowded airports. The prospect is nonetheless that the highly contagious virus will end up infecting so many of us, whatever we do or not do. The growing numbers of confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The doomsayers are meanwhile inhumanely celebrating, enjoying their moment of fame or reaping substantial financial benefits because of the panic they’ve created.
We should stop listening to the scaremongers, rather focus on doing our best to protect the most vulnerable, and smartly switch to a healthy lifestyle to prevent the chronic diseases. Sadly, organizers and authorities are canceling races, and therefore preventing the healthy marathoners from doing the right thing, while allowing tens of thousands of people of different—and not necessarily healthy—lifestyles to vent their emotions in some European football (soccer) stadiums. That begs the questions: What’s the rationale, and why preventing the marathoners from running? Well, overconsumption and chronic diseases are very good for business, while prevention is not. The more we consume, the unhealthier we’ll be, and that translates into bigger money for business.
Fortunately, just as the Malta Marathon seven days earlier, the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon rightfully went ahead on schedule, despite all the fuss and frantic panic about a virus that has killed so far only few thousands almost exclusively vulnerable patients. We should therefore praise the race organizer and the city, state and federal institutions and agencies for rightfully holding the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon on March 8, as planned. It was such a great hunting experience with amazing friends and fellow marathoners: Beth Sanden, Caren della Cioppa, Air France flight attendants Jean-Luc Videau and Frédéric Baudet, Dr. Steve Bokobza and 25,000 other members of the wonderful tribe of the day in California.
Regrettably, all my next marathons are already either canceled or postponed: Barcelona (March 15), Seoul (March 22), Roma (March 29), Paris (April 5), etc. Was the 2020 Los Angeles Marathon the last victory against the overwhelming panic lobby?
Related Article: Coping With the Coronavirus (March 17, 2020)