Can we keep this thread about Covid-19 please?
At the beginning of Covid's spread, the obesity rate in the United States stood at 42.4%, up from 30.5% just twenty years ago. If the overweight category is included too, the number jumps to a shocking 73.6% of the US population.
Just this August, JAMA reported that obesity in American children ages 5 to 11 had increased during the pandemic from 36.2% to 45.7%; disturbingly, data was only gathered through January 2021, so the number may be even higher now. When viewed in the light of obesity's proven association with Covid, the consequences of these figures become dire indeed. From a physiological standpoint, it makes sense that the overweight and obese struggle with Covid and the havoc it wreaks on the lungs. Obesity impairs normal respiratory mechanics and is an underlying cause of serious chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease – all of which also correlate with poor outcomes in coronavirus patients.
The benefits of using the immediacy of the Covid pandemic to address America's obesity problem are clear, but ironically, it almost seems that authority figures, public policies, and social phenomena have actively opposed efforts to stay physically fit.
Citizens by the millions have been obligated by their governments to stay home, watching
streaming services or playing
video games, ordering processed, calorie-dense
delivery junk food. Months upon months of behavioral habits won't disappear soon or without effort; the obesity rates keep rising. The irony would be almost comical, were the consequences to health and life not so dire.
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