Have any obese people survived covid unscathed?

[JKW36]

So I've seen in the news throughout about obesity causing problems relating to covid.
I have also seen many photos of people on news articles who have sadly passed from covid at a young age and they are almost always overweight.

I myself am very overweight. I am mid 30s. Since covid appeared I have been trying to lose weight. Infact I tried so hard I put myself into hospital. But of course when you have a lot to lose it isnt going to happen overnight. So, I am still very overweight. Need to lose about 9 stone now.

Ive been very careful throughout and still do but every time I get a sniffle I am terrified and it's really starting to effect me mentally.
My son has come down with something (I don't know how as he doesn't go anywhere) and I can feel he's passed it on to me. We are going for a test this afternoon. I'm hoping it's not covid but I am so scared that if I have got covid or I do ever get covid it is going to kill me.
Do you know anyone who is overweight who has had covid and recovered? As obviously you never see the good news online.

When I say luck, I mean wrt how much of a viral load you get, where you live, hospital care, who you come into contact with etc.

Yes, colleague, extremely obese with multiple health conditions, late 20s; described if as a 3 day cold.
Aquintance, in her 70s, obese and disabled, asymptomatic and only knew she was positive via community testing.
Mother of colleague, in her 60s, obese, healthcare worker, fully recovered after about a week, though said 'I wouldn't want it again'

Yep, friend of mine - theyre 23+ stone, 5'6", heart attack 2 yrs ago, smokes, ashtma, has a cpap machine for sleep apnoea. Was like a bad cold, no sense of taste.

Also, slight derail - I knew someone who died of swine flu in 2011 - 37 yo, healthy, non smoker normal weight. Left work as a hairdresser to go to a walk in centre as feeling unwell, was sent to hospital and died later that day.

My parents both were just heavy cold symptoms and are def obsess. My friend also obese was in ICU for a few weeks but recovering at home now.

Obese (typo)

torquewench dd1 had swine flu when she was 5. She was so ill with it I was actually worried she was going to die a couple of times. Was so relieved when she recovered. She lost a noticeable amount of weight. (Unrelated to obesity discussion as she was skinny, just responding to torque

@JKW36 Thank you so much for this thread.

My BMI is 41, it was higher at the beginning but I have been petrified of dying if I catch it.

To see the stories of people being ok is a massive relief and also the calculator that @PuzzledObserver linked, seeing my death chances as 1 in 32,000 is a massive relief.

I will continue to be as careful as I have been but I can't describe how much this thread will help to take away my fear and anxiety about this (and I am not normally an anxious person at all).

A family member had Covid over Christmas, although obese he had fairly standard symptoms. He is fine now and back at work.

[quote Fatandnearly50]@JKW36 Thank you so much for this thread.

My BMI is 41, it was higher at the beginning but I have been petrified of dying if I catch it.

To see the stories of people being ok is a massive relief and also the calculator that @PuzzledObserver linked, seeing my death chances as 1 in 32,000 is a massive relief.

I will continue to be as careful as I have been but I can't describe how much this thread will help to take away my fear and anxiety about this (and I am not normally an anxious person at all).[/quote]
I am sorry you are going through such worry and glad that theres positive stories to help you get perspective.
Hopefully it won't be too long before you recieve your vaccine too, if you really are nearly 50!

A friend of mine, 38, had it. I obviously don't know her weight, but she is morbidly obese. I'd guess close to 30st. She was hospitalised and ventilated but survived. Her husband survived too and he is just as large. But it was a close one! She was lucky.

Yes, lots! I'm one of them.

Oh, also, as far as I know if your bmi is over 40 then you are in priority group 6 for the vaccines. I haven't been weighted at my gp for years and I wouldn't have been over 40 bmi then but I am now. Do I need to ring them and inform them? How will they know?

You will need to tell your GP.

I've not knowingly had it, my worry at the moment is whether I should approach my GP as I'm sure my weight wasn't so high the last time I was weighed by them so I won't get the vaccination for underlying conditions. I'm just trying to eat healthily and take my vit d

Ha should have read the whole thread before posting that!

Thank you for this thread! I'm hovering at 40BMI having lost 2 stone.
I'm terrified- not so much because I don't rationally understand the risks, more because I tend to get virally triggered asthma and am usually extremely ill even with just a cold.

Add to that Covid and the increased risks for the obese and I'm dreading getting it. It's just so unpleasant to be ill! I've got various health issues- fibromyalgia, underactive thyroid etc. It just seems to make being ill harder than it has to be!

Yes. A friend is male, obese and diabetic and 57.He only had a cough but fine now.

@JKW36 me! I'm about 3/4 stone over weight and mid 30s. Had it at the start of January and absolutely fine, a bit of a cough, a bit fluy for a day then a cold.
I am fairly fit and run 5/6 times a week so I think that probably helped (I just like food too much hence being overweight)

Yes of course - most people will be fine obese or not.

It’s a significant increase in risk - but the risk of becoming seriously ill at your age is tiny, so even with the increase, it’s still tiny.

I know 4 clinically obese people who have had it and only had very mild symptoms. One of which had no symptoms at all he was the one who gave it to the yeast of them

Rest of them not yeast!

I don’t know anyone personally - but a very significant proportion of our population is overweight and obese, so if most were not surviving or dealing with it at home then surely the death toll would be much higher and the hospitals even more overwhelmed.

Just wanted to make the point that, although the vast majority of people will be fine, there are of course those who won’t.

The big issue with Covid is that it is still new. While there are some people who appear to resist it despite repeated exposure, the vast majority of the population have no resistance and are susceptible to it. And it’s the luck of the draw whether you have a mild case, a serious one, or die.

If 20% of people who catch Covid need hospital care (which is what they said in the beginning, that number may be different now that more is known), that is going to be so many people all at one time that hospitals can’t cope. That’s the danger we are trying to avert with lockdowns etc, to buy time to get the vaccine out.

Once most people have immunity via either infection or vaccination, then even if immunity does wane over time and they get it again, it won’t be everybody all at once, and the proportion who get severe illness will be much much lower. The NHS will cope with the unfortunate minority.

I heard a theory today that, in 20 years time, Covid may be much like the other coronaviruses in circulation, which cause colds. Children will get it, be mildly ill, then recover. A few years later, they may catch it again, be mildly ill, then recover. So by the time they are adults, with comorbodities, they will have had Covid multiple times in their life and their immune systems know what to do with it, so they never have anything more than mild symptoms.

Until the last time, of course. Covid will take its place alongside flu and noro virus as one of the things which are temporarily troublesome to younger people but can easily be fatal to the old and frail.

You would most likely be fine, but obesity is linked to diabetes, heart conditions and cancer amongst other things. These are far more likely to limit your life than covid ever will, and no vaccine can save you from them.