The Reason We’re All Getting Sick

December. That's the month everyone started getting sick. March. This is the month everyone is STILL SICK! This thing going around (whatever it is) and pretty much knocks you out. It's brutal. Then it comes back. There's a reason for all of this.

It's a cold or the flu or exhaustion - it's unidentifiable, really. More Americans are sicker now. The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health breaks the United States down by regions and explains the cause of why we are all ill.

The report in USA Today pinpointed three types of harms from climate change:

• Direct harms, such as injuries and deaths due to increasingly violent weather; asthma and other lung diseases exacerbated by extremely hot weather and wildfires; and longer allergy seasons
• Increased spread of disease through insects that carry infections like Lyme disease or Zika virus, and through contaminated food and water
• The effects on mental health resulting from the damage climate change can do to society, such as increasing depression and anxiety

Here in Idaho, we're looking at three causes for us feeling the way we do:

1. Extreme Temperatures. Gee, I bet this has nothing to do with the fact that we had snow one week and then two weeks later the weather is in the 70's.
2. Wildfires. It's been two summers of some pretty serious fires.
3. Mental Health & Well-Being.

This whole sickness is the reason I was labeled a drug dealer and had to change stores where I get my cold meds. I keep going back and I know I'm being judged. I would judge.