Obesity Has Always Been Bad for COVID

A graph from CDC correlates COVID death rate with obesity level in US counties

The data plot may look messy, but statistically it really does show that higher obesity means higher COVID death rate among US counties. Obviously, there are multiple factors that influence COVID deaths. Places above the line have especially high death rates for their level of obesity, such as New York City. CDC has officially said that obesity “increases the risk of severe illness from COVID-19.”

One of countless pandemic management blunders was the government not using the pandemic as an opportunity to fight the plague of obesity in the US. NIH says there is an epidemic of obesity among children and adults in the US. And studies show it is only getting worse. Something to think about as we approach 800,000 COVID related deaths! Indeed, the higher COVID death rate in the US relative to other nations is surely due, in part, to higher obesity levels. [Data comes from the 500 City project CDC health database.]