7 ms·

Why Covid-19 is more deadly in people with obesity–even if they’re young

50 points by ketamine__ 6y ago

aminozuur 6y ago
"Their major risk factor for getting this sick was obesity.”
OneGuy123 6y ago
“These were otherwise healthy, hard-working people,” Healthy and obese cannot exist in the same sentence. Also what does "hard working" have anything to do it? As if their hard work will offset some karmic debt that they own to their employers? "...found that 77% of nearly 17,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were overweight (29%) or obese (48%)."
- fxtentacle 6y ago
  It says "otherwise healthy"
  - sojournerc 6y ago
    It's a weasel word. "Aside from that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
- chordalkeyboard 6y ago
  I’ve known some giant fatass motherfuckers who could lay pipe, literally and figuratively.
  - ketamine__ 6y ago
    And we need bigger pipes for bigger poops!
- xxpor 6y ago
  Aren't nearly 77% of americans generally overweight or obese?
  - runamok 6y ago
    Not quite, but close. https://www.healthline.com/health/obesity-facts https://www.healthline.com/health/obesity-facts In the United States, 36.5 percentTrusted Source of adults are obese. Another 32.5 percent of American adults are overweight.
    - ketamine__ 6y ago
      > Percent of adults aged 20 and over with obesity: 42.5% (2017-2018) > Percent of adults aged 20 and over with overweight, including obesity: 73.6% (2017-2018) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
shureluck 6y ago
Why has it become shameful to simply say indulging yourself with calories is a personal choice that has consequences? It boggles my mind we need “science” to tell us this stuff that is frankly just common sense that has been beaten down by pop culture.
- d0mine 6y ago
  Obesity is much more complex than your comment implies. It is completely unsurprising that there are people who think like you.
- fxtentacle 6y ago
  It has also become shameful to honestly tell people that they failed at a task. Instead, you praise them for trying... We're treating adults more and more like kids.
  - AlecSchueler 6y ago
    If you call them a failure they internalise their failure as a feature of their character. If you praise them they will be more likely to engage in improving their performance. Why is being harsh seen as being more adult? It's just harmful and creates many social barriers and ill will.
    - sojournerc 6y ago
      You can lose a game and not be a "loser". You can fail and not be a failure. We used to teach that, not tell everyone they did good for participating Somehow we've lost the distinction between the outcome and the person.
      - LeoNatan25 6y ago
        Everyone today ties their persona and personal identity around what they do, what they purchase and what their opinion is. In some developer circles, merely opening an issue or criticizing a feature is now considered rude, because someone worked on it very hard and they might get offended at pointing the bug or lacking design. This problem is getting more and more widespread. Some people see disagreeing with any of their mundane opinions as assault on their character. With the advent of social media, blocking people for having different opinions, institutionalizing “safe” “spaces” in academia, so that freedom from “offense” or “insult” is seen as more virtuous than having freedom of opinions and ideas, it’s no surprising that people expect to be awarded for merely participating, or they fall in existential depressions.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
inglor_cz 6y ago
We have a major problem with framing of the problem. "Obesity" looks too innocuous. "Metabolic disease" or "metabolic syndrome" would probably feel scarier to people, and would be more exact. The thing that people suffer from is a syndrome of several serious conditions of which obesity is just the "observable by naked eye" component: * high blood pressure * high blood lipids * insulin resistance * fatty liver. Metabolic syndrome is the new lung cancer. Promoted by overconsumption of sugar, but the corporations that make money on it are fighting tooth and nail, constantly muddying the waters etc.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  When you tell people they have metabolic syndrome they think they have something wrong with their metabolism that is out of their control. And of course, control over body weight does vary, for a variety of reasons, but the message shouldn't be that it is not controllable.
sradman 6y ago
> A constellation of physiological and social factors drives those grim numbers. The biology of obesity includes impaired immunity, chronic inflammation, and blood that’s prone to clot, all of which can worsen COVID-19. And because obesity is so stigmatized, people with obesity may avoid medical care. We seem to ignore tissue tropism [1] when it comes to COVID-19. The disease starts in the upper respiratory tract, progresses to the lower respiratory tract (viral pneumonia) for a subset of infections, and severe lung infections can spread to adjacent blood vessels (vasculitis). A similar progression can start in the gastrointestinal system in a different subset, including kids. The solution is to stop the infection or slow its progression. Vaccinations are critical. A daily paper strip antigen test regiment with early in-home intravenous monoclonal antibody therapy for high risk groups, including the elderly and/or obese, could have saved many lives and still can. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue_tropism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue_tropism
gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
> They found that people with obesity who contracted SARS-CoV-2 were 113% more likely than people of healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74% more likely to be admitted to an ICU, and 48% more likely to die. So basically the order-of-magnitude (~3% vs ~30%) disparity of obesity between Japan & the US would go a long way to explaining hospital crowding & death rates?

50 points by ketamine__ 6y ago

"Their major risk factor for getting this sick was obesity.”

“These were otherwise healthy, hard-working people,” Healthy and obese cannot exist in the same sentence. Also what does "hard working" have anything to do it? As if their hard work will offset some karmic debt that they own to their employers? "...found that 77% of nearly 17,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were overweight (29%) or obese (48%)."

fxtentacle 6y ago
It says "otherwise healthy"
- sojournerc 6y ago
  It's a weasel word. "Aside from that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
chordalkeyboard 6y ago
I’ve known some giant fatass motherfuckers who could lay pipe, literally and figuratively.
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  And we need bigger pipes for bigger poops!
xxpor 6y ago
Aren't nearly 77% of americans generally overweight or obese?
- runamok 6y ago
  Not quite, but close. https://www.healthline.com/health/obesity-facts https://www.healthline.com/health/obesity-facts In the United States, 36.5 percentTrusted Source of adults are obese. Another 32.5 percent of American adults are overweight.
  - ketamine__ 6y ago
    > Percent of adults aged 20 and over with obesity: 42.5% (2017-2018) > Percent of adults aged 20 and over with overweight, including obesity: 73.6% (2017-2018) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm

shureluck 6y ago

Why has it become shameful to simply say indulging yourself with calories is a personal choice that has consequences? It boggles my mind we need “science” to tell us this stuff that is frankly just common sense that has been beaten down by pop culture.

d0mine 6y ago
Obesity is much more complex than your comment implies. It is completely unsurprising that there are people who think like you.
fxtentacle 6y ago
It has also become shameful to honestly tell people that they failed at a task. Instead, you praise them for trying... We're treating adults more and more like kids.
- AlecSchueler 6y ago
  If you call them a failure they internalise their failure as a feature of their character. If you praise them they will be more likely to engage in improving their performance. Why is being harsh seen as being more adult? It's just harmful and creates many social barriers and ill will.
  - sojournerc 6y ago
    You can lose a game and not be a "loser". You can fail and not be a failure. We used to teach that, not tell everyone they did good for participating Somehow we've lost the distinction between the outcome and the person.
    - LeoNatan25 6y ago
      Everyone today ties their persona and personal identity around what they do, what they purchase and what their opinion is. In some developer circles, merely opening an issue or criticizing a feature is now considered rude, because someone worked on it very hard and they might get offended at pointing the bug or lacking design. This problem is getting more and more widespread. Some people see disagreeing with any of their mundane opinions as assault on their character. With the advent of social media, blocking people for having different opinions, institutionalizing “safe” “spaces” in academia, so that freedom from “offense” or “insult” is seen as more virtuous than having freedom of opinions and ideas, it’s no surprising that people expect to be awarded for merely participating, or they fall in existential depressions.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

inglor_cz 6y ago

We have a major problem with framing of the problem. "Obesity" looks too innocuous. "Metabolic disease" or "metabolic syndrome" would probably feel scarier to people, and would be more exact. The thing that people suffer from is a syndrome of several serious conditions of which obesity is just the "observable by naked eye" component: * high blood pressure * high blood lipids * insulin resistance * fatty liver. Metabolic syndrome is the new lung cancer. Promoted by overconsumption of sugar, but the corporations that make money on it are fighting tooth and nail, constantly muddying the waters etc.

maxerickson 6y ago
When you tell people they have metabolic syndrome they think they have something wrong with their metabolism that is out of their control. And of course, control over body weight does vary, for a variety of reasons, but the message shouldn't be that it is not controllable.

sradman 6y ago

> A constellation of physiological and social factors drives those grim numbers. The biology of obesity includes impaired immunity, chronic inflammation, and blood that’s prone to clot, all of which can worsen COVID-19. And because obesity is so stigmatized, people with obesity may avoid medical care. We seem to ignore tissue tropism [1] when it comes to COVID-19. The disease starts in the upper respiratory tract, progresses to the lower respiratory tract (viral pneumonia) for a subset of infections, and severe lung infections can spread to adjacent blood vessels (vasculitis). A similar progression can start in the gastrointestinal system in a different subset, including kids. The solution is to stop the infection or slow its progression. Vaccinations are critical. A daily paper strip antigen test regiment with early in-home intravenous monoclonal antibody therapy for high risk groups, including the elderly and/or obese, could have saved many lives and still can. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue_tropism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissue_tropism

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago

> They found that people with obesity who contracted SARS-CoV-2 were 113% more likely than people of healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74% more likely to be admitted to an ICU, and 48% more likely to die. So basically the order-of-magnitude (~3% vs ~30%) disparity of obesity between Japan & the US would go a long way to explaining hospital crowding & death rates?