Data from several countries continues to show a clear link between coronavirus mortality and morbidity rates and obesity, giving rise to great concern in the United States, where the obesity rate is 42% as opposed to China's 6% and Italy's 10%.
Business Insider quoted Jean-François Delfraissy, France's chief epidemiologist, who warned that, "This virus ... can hit young people, in particular obese young people. Those who are overweight really need to be careful."
Dr. Robert Eckel, president of medicine and science for the American Diabetes Association, told Business Insider that a "sophisticated internist" in New York City told him at least 90% of the people under age 50 he has seen ventilated due to Covid-19 were obese. Similar findings are being reported from other locations too. A study conducted in China found that overweight people were 86% more likely to develop severe pneumonia due to Covid-19; those who were obese were 2.4 times more likely to develop it. (For men, the figures were even higher; obese men were 5.7 times more likely to develop severe pneumonia.)
In the UK, another study cited by Business Insider revealed that around 65% of Covid-19 patients admitted to ICU units were overweight or obese; a report quoted in The Telegraph added that obese people have been found to be 40% more likely to die of coronavirus.
Studies revealed similar findings during the 2009 "swine flu" epidemic.