Fat people even more likely to be affected by COVID than previously thought

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UK government scientists are urgently investigating whether people living with obesity may be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, after emerging data from intensive care units suggested a stronger link than previously thought.

New data from the UK’s Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre, which has been presented to ministers and SAGE scientists, has found that the proportion of severely obese patients in ICUs is twice the proportion in the general population.

Ministers have become increasingly alarmed by data coming out of Britain’s intensive care units, with some members of the government suggesting obesity may end up being a factor in the UK’s higher death toll.

The UK is currently projected to have the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe. Around 1 in 4 UK adults are obese. In 2018, the WHO found that the UK had the third highest obesity rate in Europe, behind only Malta and Turkey.

More here:
www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/alexwickham/uk-scientists-coronavirus-obesity-link

This has been well known for some while (sadly)

It'd be good to know how many of those who are obese and in ICU also have an underlying...that should help make the correlation whether it's obesity on its own that's a risk or obesity+an underlying.

The link has been known but the latest data suggests an even higher link between death and serious disease for fat people than the original data

You mustn't say things like this. Then people can't blame Boris for the death toll

"From a public health perspective these new insights raise the prospect of obesity being considered as a risk factor in its own right rather than as something which happens to be associated with other conditions, in particular diabetes."

From here www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/30/link-obesity-covid-19-now-blatant-ignore/

I agree that it's likely at least partly the fact that those who are obese are more likely to have type 2 diabetes and other risk factors. But even carrying a lot of excess weight is an extra burden on your body and your organs, I doubt its much of a surprise that being very unhealthy increases your risk of being hit harder by this.

Meadows20 It’s quite difficult to separate obesity from the
comorbidities (high blood pressure, diabetes etc) that would be classed as underlying conditions, that typically come along with it. There will be obese people who don’t suffer from such conditions but they will probably be in the minority.

It would be interesting though to compare for example, patients in ICU with high blood pressure but who have a healthy BMI...

www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-6
Interesting article on Vitamin D, BAME population and the elderly. Well worth a read.

My understanding is that a typical patient in a covid icu is male, over 50, underlying conditions, BMI>30. Have the analysts now managed to adjust their calculations to strip out the other 3 factors, and report on obesity as a stand alone factor? I’d like to see a lancet link

Once you have a large number of patients then the maths to untangle isn't too hard
Suspect it relies in probabilities
Eg differences in probability of death for diabetes, obesity , diabetes plus obesity in each age and sex group

As a 50+ female with underlying conditions including hypertension but with a BMI of 21 I'm really interested in this.

Just googled and only 10-15% of people with type2 diabetes are of healthy weight so that would present a challenge when separating out. High blood pressure likely to be easier, this is often congenital/stress related rather than linked to lifestyle.

Definitely more at risk due to levels of chronic inflammation from adipose tissue.

I’m in the overweight category currently. I wouldn’t recommend a crash diet that’s not at all likely to help your immune system.

Best advice it to eat a low inflammatory diet and don’t focus too much on scales.

Whole foods. Ditch the sugar and refined carbs.

"Living with obesity?"
Is that what it's called now?
I have struggled with my weight all my life, although I'm am now in the "healthy" band after a major health kick three years ago where I upped my exercise, lowered my food intake, reduced alcohol consumption and lost 3 and a half stone.
I hadn't been "living with obesity." I was just bring greedy and lazy.
Health officials have been warning us for years that we are sitting on a time bomb, health-wise, if we're overweight. And here we are! Surely it's no massive surprise?

Vitamin D deficiency is also more common in the obese. Might add to it.

Health officials have been warning us for years that we are sitting on a time bomb, health-wise, if we're overweight. And here we are! Surely it's no massive surprise?

Oh, I thought it was due to a virus?

Haven't we known that from the start? Purely anecdotally when you see the montages of people who've sadly died it's clear that the majority are either overweight and/or of BAME origin.

Obviously I know that's a totally unscientific observation but it's generally accepted that those are risk factors isn't it, even if we don't yet know exactly why it is.

You struggled with your weight all your life, and yet the only insight you've come away with is that you were being greedy and lazy?

Health officials have been warning us for years that we are sitting on a time bomb, health-wise, if we're overweight. And here we are! Surely it's no massive surprise?

Makes all those who championed the "big is beautiful" campaign a little foolish doesn't it? It's common sense that being overweight isn't good for you. Unless people have been living in a cave, they'll have seen all the warnings about risks of diabetes, heart conditions, cancer, etc being linked to being overweight. Perhaps now, we can have a proper discussion about it instead of being accused of "fat shaming" and perhaps doctors etc will be more willing to mention it when they're sat in front of clearly overweight patients. Maybe even employers will start encouraging staff to lose weight - yes NHS I'm looking at you!

That was a very honest post CallmeAngelina.

Eat healthy
Exercise
Protect the NHS

Might be better than everyone staying home !

Staying home, getting fatter and exercising less ffs

Tigertrees, what insight would you like her to come away with? Sometimes it's as simple as she said it's not always about issues.
And I agree with the poster who said it needs addressing rather than being called out for fat shaming.

Oh, I thought it was due to a virus?
Of course, which is adversely affecting obese people to a much greater extent than those with a healthy weight.
Plenty of other factors muddying the waters of course, but there seems to be a clear correlation from the figures so far.

For many people it is an addiction and yes needs to be tackled, but so does smoking and drinking every day and (obviously) taking drugs.
I would suspect that many if not most obese people have actually put more energy into trying to lose weight and get fit than someone from a starting point of being slim. It's well known that dieting has a you-yo effect and when people lose weight they are very likely to regain it later.
Hopefully current concerns can be a trigger for many to make sustainable changes leading to weight loss and increased fitness, but oh my god if it was just waking up and deciding not to be "greedy" there'd be no fat people.