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

[pocketem]

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

TBH, I didn't read it as anything other than statistical. I really am very neutral on politics, and the rights and wrongs of the left and the right. But I notice the world around me, and over my 64 years, I have noticed that nurses have become ever fatter, while police people got ever younger.

And as someone who tries damned hard to have as little contact as possible with the NHS, on the rare occasions that I meet someone who works in it my first reaction is 'Gosh you work for the NHS and you're not the size of a gable end'.

I do completely understand that in most hospitals, staff are run ragged, and don't have time to eat well, or that institutional mass catering is usually unheathy or unpopular. But I do find myself questioning health advice dished out by anyone other than the thin rock-climbing doctor, who has been my GP for 30 years.

It must have been even worse than usual for Xenia to be deleted.

And yet @HelenaDove you see them on thread after thread and once they find an audience for their messages of hate, they really warm to it. I imagine after a few days of seeing so many posters thoroughly agree with those views, they got a bit bold. And will continue to do so. But Xenia isn't the only one ...

The goal is to reduce the risk of blood clots that can form when patients have an irregular heartbeat and make their way to other parts of the body.