I’m in Antwerp for Devoxx Belgium and spent the late afternoon walking: partly to get a sense of Antwerp, partly to avoid going to sleep to early after an overnight flight to Schiphol. I think I succeeded on both counts.
Belgium obviously understands that keeping its citizens healthy not only improves lives but also the overall health of the country: physically, mentally, fiscally, etc. In the US, the right-wing, anti-vax nutlobs have made substantial progress in abandoning science and success of any number of vaccines which have improved health world-wide. The current administration is intentionally taking backwards steps to ass-kiss their constituents. Scary.
Life expectancy in the United States has always lagged that of Europe (wars notwithstanding), but the gap has consistently become larger. Expect for that gap to make a jump.
