"Why do we need bottled poison in soft drinks?"  That query, uttered by Mexico's coronavirus czar Health Undersecretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell, is splashed today across the pages of USA Today media outlets.

 Why can't the U.S. have this guy?  The Mexican health official linked sugary soft drinks to Covid-19 and blamed sugar for causing obesity, diabetes and hypertension.  These comorbidities afflict more than three quarters of the Mexican population, where annual per capita soda consumption is about 172 quarters per year.

 Both the health official and Mexico's president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are vocalizing their belief that the pandemic issues there are due to poor nutrition habits, chief of which is consuming soda.  Well good for them. 

 Meixcans consume more soda than any country in the world.  Lopez-Gatell said the powerful beverage industry has influenced a hush policy for too many administrations.  He blames the industry on 40,000 Mexican deaths per year and said the "evidence is very clear."

 Of course, the beverage industry isn't taking this broadside sitting down, saying this assault on them shows "the need to find a public enemy to hold responsible for the health crisis the country confronts due to the Covid-19 pandemic."

In my recipe for building immunity, eliminating soda is the first item.  It seems obvious, and it's easy.  We're not talking about exercising half an hour a day.  This literally costs no money.  That I still see Coca-Cola trucks traversing our highways and people putting money in vending machines for them in the middle of this pandemic is mind boggling.

 I haven't heard any American health expert at this level of officialdom even hint at this issue.  So kudos to Mexico for having the fortitude and foresight to address the biggest and fastest impediments to Covid-19 infection--diet and immune robustness.  Why can't American officials say this?

 Could it be that they are beholden to pharmaceutical companies who stand to make a lot of money selling vaccines?