High Obesity Rate, Americans Vulnerable to COVID-19 – The increasing number of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure among the people of the United States makes them have a high susceptibility to being infected with the corona virus COVID-19.
According to Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 60 percent of adults in America have at least one of these health conditions.
“All of these health problems increase the risk of COVID-19 infection, a disease caused by a virus, and worse, death,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Mail, Monday, March 30, 2020.
High Obesity Rate, Americans Vulnerable to COVID-19
As of today, Tuesday afternoon, March 31, 2020, data from distribution maps made by Johns Hopkins University confirmed as many as 164,610 infected cases, 3,170 killed and 5,945 recovered. Health experts worry that these two numbers will increase exponentially because only a few are truly at low risk of infection.
Experts suggest that obesity could put Americans at risk of a pandemic similar to that seen in 1918 with the Spanish flu. According to the CDC, 42.4 percent of the adult population is obese and 18.5 percent of children in America.
Obesity is known as a risk factor for several chronic health conditions including type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart attack and even certain types of cancer. Experts warn that the proportion of obese adults will only grow like the younger generation.
Rising rates of obesity will not only increase health care costs, but can spur a corona virus pandemic, or a future pandemic.
A 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic study found that obese people were twice as likely to be hospitalized compared to the country’s population. That is, fat people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 make hospitals that are already overwhelmed increasingly full.
In addition, a recent study from the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that obese and flu-infected adults not only had a greater risk of developing severe complications, but remained infectious longer.
This means, obesity is associated with an increased risk of flu transmission. With 75 percent of adults in the United States estimated to be overweight or obese by 2030, this could result in the loss of thousands more lives due to the flu, or corona virus. DominoQQ
While it’s not clear why obese adults are more contagious, scientists believe that obesity changes the body’s immune response and causes chronic inflammation. What’s more, a study this month from China found that corona virus patients with comorbidities had higher mortality rates.
Meanwhile, research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that only 12 percent of Americans over the age of 20 are considered ‘metabolically healthy’. This population has waist measurements, glucose levels, blood pressure and cholesterol “optimal” without having to take medication.
In the interim, 80 million individuals in America (one out of three) experience the ill effects of hypertension, 100 million live with diabetes or pre-diabetes, and 102 million have elevated cholesterol levels, and many have a mix of every one of the three. That is, just a little part of the populace can really be viewed as generally safe.