What is the true story?

[Namechangervaver]

Hancock has said he has lost two people close to him.

Somebody I know has died.

Boris has been hospitalised.

The country has been shut down despite us knowing that to do this will cripple us for years to come, so it's a very serious situation.

A small fraction of our population is supposedly affected but I'm guessing we all know people hospitalised or dead.

This is obviously so much worse than we have been told

I remember a thread on here a while ago where someone got told off for being size 8 because it's "child sized" and "real women should be size 16". Absolutely nuts.

Thanks for the concern Squirrel. It wouldn't be the first time I have been censored for pointing out the truth here.

It wouldn't be the first time I have been censored for pointing out the truth here.

Occupational hazard these days I'm afraid. MN has changed.

Just been reading this on the news about obesity and the virus www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/doctor-note-obesity-risk-factor-coronavirus-200406065716658.html?utm_source=website&utm_medium=article_page&utm_campaign=read_more_links

That's a really interesting article. It makes sense to me.

Male sex, age www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52197594

and race www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52194018

also come in to it and again are sometimes not easy to dicuss on here at times.

There was an article in The Times today saying that in the UK, BAME make up 13% of the population but they represent 1/3rd of Coronavirus deaths so far.

I suppose it's possible that there is some genetic reason for this, maybe a predisposition to diabetes or something, but it didn't distinguish between subsets of ethnic minority, so that doesn't seem to be likely - they were just all lumped in together insofar as I could tell.

My guess is that London and Birmingham seem to be the UK corona hotspots and they are also the two areas most heavily populated by BAME people in the UK. They tend to be more likely to live in built up urban areas compared to white people (generally speaking) so social distancing is harder. Also, certainly in the case of families of Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani descent, more likely to live like the Italians, ie., in multi-generational households with more people under one roof, with young children (carriers/spreaders) giving it to the elderly.

And are we not allowed to mention close blood relations marrying either?

Funnily enough, I just did - then deleted it because frankly i don't need the hassle.

But yes....I imagine it's a factor. How much of a factor, I have no idea. But a factor nonetheless.

Consanguinity could be a factor that could exacerbate a genetic susceptibility I imagine, but I don't think it's actually that common across the whole BAME population, is it? I've only heard of it happening within the Pakistani community, but even then my husband is Pakistani and nobody in his vast family is in, or is the product of, a cousin marriage. Diabetes and heart disease are common though.

Yes it definitely could (indeed it would) be a factor lakequeen and no, it isn't common across the whole BAME population, so it may not be that much of a factor. But that assumes that there are not patterns of deaths within subsets of BAME people that we are not hearing about.

It isn't just the Pakistani community although it is largely them. It's Muslims from many parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Kurdistan, the gulf states, Somalia etc. It's pretty widespread.

Marrying a first cousin is not in itself especially risky, but the issue with some communities is that they do it religiously, generation upon generation without deviation, so that's where the problems often arise. Any inherent problem just compounds itself with each new marriage and when you are marrying six or seven of your children to six or seven of your siblings children, and your spouse is your first cousin as well as your brother in law, well....it's not ideal. Let's just say that.

It’s very tragic for the BAME communities, as indeed it is for us all. I know Diabetes and heart disease can be fairly prevalent especially in the males, many of my Asian friends openly discuss this so it’s not a taboo subject. I want to be careful not to generalise but I wonder if this issue was excaberated through gatherings in the mosques? If you are regularly attending the same place daily with the same people then there is a possibility of widespread infection, all it takes is one person to pass it onto a whole group.

Another reason could be from taxi drivers, essentially dealing with the public in a confined space every day could lead to problems too. What a mess though, I feel deep sadness for the families this is affecting.

Yes it was sad about those bus drivers also, similar.

I was wondering whether the BAME prevalence was to do with diabetes too. There is a higher susceptibility to type 2 diabetes at a much lower weight and that is one of the susceptible groups so it could be genetic susceptibility to some extent.

If you think about it taxi and bus drivers as well as coming into contact with the public are very sedentary due to the nature of the job. there was a study on bus conductors and drivers (before this virus) and the drivers were much more likely to die than the conductors and be generally in poorer health

It makes me thing of this sedentary life we now have enforced on us and the lower levels of walking etc - not great for us is it.

partner.sciencenorway.no/exercise-forskningno-norway/a-long-healthy-life-with-exercise/1386131

"The buses offered a perfect way to study the puzzle of what was behind an epidemic of coronary heart disease that arose in developed countries after the Second World War.
Researchers could compare two groups of people who came from similar backgrounds and who worked in the same environment. The only difference was that London bus drivers sat all day, driving their buses. Their conductor colleagues spent their workdays walking the length of the bus and climbing up and down the double decker stairs, sometimes climbing 750 steps a day.
In 1953, Morris and his colleagues published their first findings in the British medical journal The Lancet. Bus drivers, the researchers found, were twice as likely to die from heart disease as conductors. The same pattern held true in mail carriers, dockworkers, office workers and more.
The Generasjon 100 study involves testing blood levels of haemoglobin, glucose, long-term blood sugar, three different types of cholesterol, triglycerides and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Researchers hope that participant blood levels, which will be retested over the course of the three-year-long project, will show the benefits of exercise. (Photo: Nancy Bazilchuk)
The Generasjon 100 study involves testing blood levels of haemoglobin, glucose, long-term blood sugar, three different types of cholesterol, triglycerides and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Researchers hope that participant blood levels, which will be retested over the course of the three-year-long project, will show the benefits of exercise. (Photo: Nancy Bazilchuk)
Six decades after Morris’s ground-breaking work, his findings are medical gospel. Exercise is good for you, and can drastically cut deaths from heart disease.."

I think you’re right orangeblossom.

So it proves moving around is healthy.... any sentient intelligent person could have told you that the person who moves around is healthier than a person who sits in a chair.

And yet so many people don’t move around. With awful health consequences.

Or could it be linked to the fact that it's harder for people with darker skin to get the vitamin d they need in this country.

Although I dont think that would explain the greater number of Male victims.

@ChippityDoDa thank you for your post yesterday.

Vitamin D can be bought in tablets. I have some on the desk. They are cheap.

I didn't mean people can't afford it.

I mean do they take it?

Who knows @GabriellaMontez? I can't stuff them down their throats. Responsibility is really important. If you don't accept it, then the outcome is yours. And yours alone.

CV has taken us all by surprise but people have been dying from obesity related disease for decades. We have an obesity time bomb. It's not a shocking finding that obesity and inactivity is killing us.CV is just one of many diseases where that is the case. If it was easy to solve the obesity crisis through following advice then it would have been solved years ago.