Please add me to your ping list.
Instead requiring stay sheltered and masking even outside for so much of the pandemic was too often the recourse. And 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). 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^
If I play with the cats an extra 10 minutes a day, does that count?