Obesity Weighs 2nd Heaviest On COVID Death Rate Scale

The link between COVID-19 deaths & obesity was long expected, but not the stunning rates of death let alone level of obesity.

We’re told in Fox’s “Study finds link between coronavirus mortality risk & obesity” that “globally, Covid-19 mortality rates were more than ten times higher in countries where overweight prevalence exceeds 50% of adults. The study by the World Obesity Foundation claimed a country’s wealth, reporting capacity, elderly population & other factors could not explain the link with more research needed to confirm. According to the CDC, the U.S. has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, increasing from 30.5% to 42.4% of the population in the last 18 years. The bellwether Johns Hopkins University pandemic tracking service meanwhile notes the U.S. has the world’s 9th highest COVID-19 death rate at 158.43 deaths per 100,000. Fox reminded that only “age” seems to be the underlying factor in more COVID deaths than obesity.

The solution(s) to this math, of course, is frightening on a number of levels. It’s hard to nail down what is/isn’t obesity. The state-imposed lockdowns stemming from the pandemic certainly are not helping cloistered folks fight obesity with more exercise. And, medical personnel can be shy in bringing up the subject with ambulance chasing lawyers hovering around the hospital gurney for signs of discrimination. Whatever, we just wish obesity as a “high at risk” COVID-19 factor wasn’t publicized more in the early going to perhaps help save more lives.

Davd Soul