Studies Begin to Untangle Obesity's Role in Covid-19

Obesity is emerging as a major risk factor for Covid, and for underlying conditions contributing to poor Covid outcomes.
(Image by Tobyotter)   Details   DMCA

People with extra weight may struggle to mount a robust immune response to the coronavirus — and may respond poorly to a vaccine.

The correlations between Covid-19 and obesity are worrisome. In one report published last month, researchers found that people with obesity who caught the coronavirus were more than twice as likely to end up in the hospital and nearly 50 percent more likely to die of Covid-19. Another study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, showed that among nearly 17,000 hospitalized Covid-19 patients in the United States, more than 77 percent had excess weight or obesity.