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

Does anyone else notice how society has changed since the 80s? A treat back then was a penguin biscuit or a two fingered kit kat - now we have this culture of over indulgence. We are “told” to be busy all the time, burn the candle at both ends so we now “need” energy drinks/pick me ups/a break involving sugar/food on the go. YOU DESERVE IT. And when you are burned out it’s not hard to feel you DO deserve it.

No great surprise. It will be interesting to see how this makes its way into shielding criteria.

A lot of people are fat due to an eating disorder. Eating disorders are caused by mental health problems

63% of the population is overweight. Are you suggesting they're all or mostly mentally disordered?

@siameasy yes and this trend from this time demonstrates this all to well.
As a child (showing my age now 😬) a Mcdonalds party was a treat, not something we all eat with frequency.
Junk food is seen as a reward - even well meaning with fab intentions bombard NHS places with cup cakes, easter eggs etc. Normalising processed food further as a reward.

Question re the graphs that psychomath posted upthread.

It looked like less than 1% of people with a BMI of under 18.5 have been critically ill.

But aren't most very elderly people (who make up the greatest proportion of deaths) extremely thin?

I don't get it? Or is the answer that they don't bother taking the very elderly into ICU?

Fear and loathing’s gotta vent somewhere. A convenient whipping boy works a treat.

But aren't most very elderly people (who make up the greatest proportion of deaths) extremely thin?

Not necessarily, but the ARE old, which means your immune response is depleted, your organs are failing, and you are likely to have other co-morbidities. Also generally, the older you are, and I am talking 85+ here, you cannot be intubated or agressively treated as it is not successful, and does not lead to a good outcome. Also this age group are more likely to have non-aggressive treatment orders in place.

The obesity link is therefore more apparent for those in the 50-70 age group, as which there are a large proportion.

Hopefully research like this will at least allow people to have conversations that should have been had years ago because we have to be able to have honest discussions about problems without people being offended on a personal level. We have known for a long time that, all other things being equal, being obese is less healthy than not being obese.
That is not about 'fat shaming'; it's a statement of scientific facts as far as they are currently understood.
There is an interlink between globalised industries - industrial farming, processed food and packaging manufacturers, supermarkets, the road, car and fossil fuel lobby, not to mention the dieting industry itself - and governments, which make obesity a societal issue. There does have to be some element of personal responsibility but the food chain requires a huge overhaul where governments need to somehow get out of the pockets of industry lobbyists and look at tax income and outgoings as a whole. They have picked around the edges with things like the sugar tax, but they run scared of anything deemed frightening to industry whilst having to subsidise via the health service the problems that those industries have had a large hand in causing.

ThereWillBeAdequateFood

I could never eat salad on its own.

So I have half a pizza with salad, which is much healthier than a whole pizza and no salad, and tastes a whole lot better than salad on it own.

Yes, I've noticed that in Africa and Asia actually sarky-pants, obesity is rapidly becoming a health catastrophe in South Africa, and it affects the poorer demographic, yes the wealthy do tend to be slim and fit. Unfortunately it's going hand-in-hand with rapidly increasing rates of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
But nice bit of stereotyping about skinny Africans.

Before the 1980s few people were fat, you only saw the extremes we see now in the U.K. in the USA. People are saying it is all the government’s fault, no take responsibility for your selves. We all KNOW what makes people fat junk food, eating constantly, huge portions in the cheaper restaurants people drinking huge quantities of fizzy drinks. Lack of exercise, walking is free.

I have never been thin, but have never been fat, exercise and reduced eating, it is scared how little you need to eat to lose weight.

I feel sorry for the many overweight people you now see, especially teenagers. The ludicrous fat shaming movement does not help.

Just an example of the complicated factors linked to weight gain, the role of prolonged stress (and no, it's not just that you eat more when you are stressed)

www.today.com/health/does-stress-cause-weight-gain-t126249

"A treat back then was a penguin biscuit or a two fingered kit kat - now we have this culture of over indulgence. We are “told” to be busy all the time, burn the candle at both ends so we now “need” energy drinks/pick me ups/a break involving sugar/food on the go. YOU DESERVE IT. And when you are burned out it’s not hard to feel you DO deserve it."

Yes, watch The Men who made us fat. It shows clearly how the food industry manipulated all this. It used to be a bit taboo to eat between meals as you'd spoil your appetite so they started marketing smaller chocolate bars (a finger of fudge is just enough), then making them bigger and now you can buy double bars.

As a woman who has lived with anorexia on and off for nearly twenty years, might I just add that 'why don't you just eat' is precisely what people say to anorexics, including health professionals, along with other such gems as 'you don't have to starve you know, men like a bit of ass and thigh on a girl'.

*Can you really expect comfort eaters to give up their crutch with this damned virus going round?
*
Erm, if it's likely to kill them then yes would be the obvious answer. Like alcoholics and other addicts are advised to do when putting their own lives at risk.

"I know lots of people that are thin but eat shit. My brother is the perfect example: good weight, looks healthy. He doesn't touch fruit at all and hardly any vegetables. He lives on cereal, chocolates, alcohol and meat. He can not be healthy in my opinion."

In your opinion, but I presume you can't see inside his body so you don't know at all if there are adverse effects. I don't think there are many illnesses linked to malnutrition in the UK at the moment, barring vitamin D deficiency.
With the obese people I know, the effect on their health is very obvious - they have pains in their joints, can't run, etc. For people who are slim or medium-sized, but don't always get their 5 a day I think it's much harder to see any ill effect. I'm one of those and I can't at the moment see any harm it's done. I don't get colds any more often than anyone else and can fight them back well. I do wonder whether getting my vits from a bottle rather than food might count against me if I get Covid, but it's really not very clear.

There is lots of research around what makes people fat. We could tackle this if we wanted to but it would mean some companies make less money. And fatness once people have enough money to eat is very heavily linked to poverty.

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

I agree with this. Far more research needs to be done on the obesity - covid relationship, adjusting for other factors (sex, age, underlying conditions). At the moment, trying to prove a relationship between “obese females

" "it's a disease like alcoholism! They can't help it!" And yet no one goes around feeling sorry for alcoholics do they? No one says "poor alcoholics, they can't HELP being an alcoholic, cut them slack!"."

Of course they do. They quite often get to keep their jobs because it's considered an illness rather than bad behaviour. They get medical care for it, even if it's inadequate and there's quite a lot of sympathy that it's hard to stop drinking.

"We could tackle this if we wanted to but it would mean some companies make less money."

Yes, and resistance from the population - look at how people reacted to Jamie Oliver's healthy school meals. We need the government to stand up to the food industry that's for sure.

Exercise more. Easy to say if you're able bodied. Lots of people gain weight because of mobility issues, be it permanent disability or temporary injury. Long NHS waiting lists for treatments doesn't help. A relatively minor condition can end up being disabling through delayed care. Then you have people who've gained weight because of certain health conditions - especially undiagnosed, and then also many medications can cause weight gain.

And of course, all the education in the world won't magic money up. There's a very strong link between poverty and obesity. People can't easily eat well on restricted budgets especially the hundreds of thousands in temporary accommodation, which often lacks proper cooking facilities. Processed carbs are cheap to buy. I could've halved my grocery bill if I'd bought cheap white bread and pasta instead of all the veg, whole grains, and healthy protein I got. I doubt people reliant on food banks get much in the way of fresh healthy food.

So no it's very often not as simple as telling people to eat healthier and exercise more.

The link to obesity and Covid mortality has been apparent for a while. The government chose to ignore it presumably. They also failed to protect those with diabetes, hypertension, and most cardiac patients by leaving them off the shielding list. Despite all the evidence showing these conditions have the highest Covid death rates (together with some lung and kidney conditions).

And some will be working in the NHS cleaning and serving meals etc. Risking their lives to save entitled snobs like you

Did you miss the guidelines about personal attacks?

"Are you suggesting obese people are mentally ill? Seems a bit offensive to me tbh"

I think it's probably true that there are at least emotional problems though. If someone is doing something they know harms them, there must be a problem.

"as offensive as your constant use of the term 'fat people' "

Fat is not an incorrect word though. I know people don't like it so I wouldn't use it to someone's face, but the opposite of thin is fat. It's not a made-up insult.

It's been known for ages that obesity is associated with an increased severity of influenza infection so why is anyone surprised about this observation. Obesity is also associated with a diminished response to vaccination.

I agree that far more research into confounding factors is needed. A US study has demonstrated no link between obesity and mortality per se, rather that obesity is associated with an increased likelihood of ARDS leading to an increased risk of death.

Very few people are obese because they eat too many fruit and vegetables. I'm in Mexico and obesity has become a societal problem here since the 1990s, when supermarkets started to become the norm, with their shelves full of processed food.