COVID-19 is real and a serious threat overall to those in poor health, and especially the aged, as the CDC reported that more than 81% of COVID-19 deaths occur in people over age 65, and with the number of deaths among people over age 65 being 80 times higher than the number of deaths among people aged 18-29.[1] However, obesity — which over 42% of Americans are — along with high blood pressure and diabetes (which tend to be related to obesity) are leading comorbidities in Covid-assigned deaths (and obesity itself is estimated to be attributable to 2,800,000 deaths in America over a 10 year period — at 280,000 per year).
Research finds that obesity along with high blood pressure and diabetes (which typically are related to obesity [3][4] [5]) are the leading comorbidities in Covid-assigned deaths.[6] And over 70% of Americans are overweight or obese. [7] And while Covid-assigned deaths are now over 800,000 in America, yet according to the National Library of Medicine the estimated number of deaths per year in America that are attributable to obesity among US adults is approximately 280,000. Which means 2,800,000 over a 10 year period. [8]
The CDC reported that obesity is linked to impaired immune function, and may triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection, and decreases lung capacity and reserve and can make ventilation more difficult. And the increased risk for hospitalization or death was particularly pronounced in those under age 65,[9] and that about 78% of people that were hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died from Covid-19 were overweight or obese. [10]
This includes some otherwise healthy, hard-working people and even the young. Since the pandemic began dozens of studies have reported that many of the sickest COVID-19 patients have been people with obesity A study published in August 2020 reported that an international team of researchers who pooled data from scores of peer-reviewed papers capturing 399,000 patients, found that “people with obesity who contracted SARS-CoV-2 were 113% more likely than people of healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74% more likely to be admitted to an ICU, and 48% more likely to die.” Another study found that 77% of nearly 17,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were overweight (29%) or obese (48%) - and which over 40% of Americans are. [11]
Consistent with this, the majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight,” and “that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity.[12] “The report found that every country where less than 40% of the population was overweight had a low Covid-19 death rate of no more than 10 people per 100,000.” “Age is the predominant factor affecting risk of hospitalisation and death from Covid-19, but the report finds that being overweight comes a close second.” [13] cf. [14] [15]
In addition, more recent research has reported that fat cells can act as a reservoir for RNA viruses like influenza A and HIV, providing an additional site for the virus to replicate. TOC^