Covidly Obese Risk

[Joe Guy]

Hospital analysis: Nearly half of COVID-19 patients are obese

Americans’ addiction to greasy junk food and heaping meal portions, disparities in access to healthy food and sitting for hours on end have made us especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

The United States has more obese people — about 40 percent of the overall population — than any other major nation, and obesity has been linked to chronic, preventable illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Any of those conditions can lead to a more severe outcome of COVID-19.

A recent analysis of hospital network data found that 48 percent of patients being treated for the disease were obese.

The COVID-NET report, published on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, looked at 1,482 patients in 99 counties nationwide, including Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties in California. The data were collected between March 1 and March 31.

The data showed that 9 of 10 patients had an underlying medical condition, including:

—Hypertension: 49.7%

—Diabetes: 28.3%

—Chronic lung disease: 34.6%

—Cardiovascular disease: 27.8%

—Obesity: 48.3%

While the report does not confirm obesity as an independent risk factor, when it occurs in conjunction with an underlying medical condition it can aggravate the severity of COVID-19.

For patients aged 18 to 49, obesity was the most prevalent underlying condition, according to the study. Nearly 60 percent of those hospitalized were obese.

The CDC defines an obese person as one with a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or more, for example, a 6-foot-tall male who weighs 217 pounds. (Exception: Muscular physiques may have high BMIs without being obese or even overweight.)

source

[ex-khobar Andy]

Hospital analysis: Nearly half of COVID-19 patients are obese

and

The United States has more obese people — about 40 percent of the overall population — than any other major nation,

I'm not sure this proves anything beyond that COV is an equal opportunity virus.

[Econoline]

Not quite "equal", Andy. Simply being male seems to be a significant risk factor. Yes, even after controlling for just about everything else.

[...] sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen seem to be important in modulating the immune response, says Veena Taneja of the Mayo Clinic, who studies differences in male and female immune systems.

What's more, she says, women also have two copies of the X chromosome, while men have only one.

"The X chromosome has lots of immune-response genes," Taneja says.

While women's extra X chromosome is generally silenced, she says, "almost around 10% of those genes, they can be activated. Many of those genes are actually immune-response genes."

That makes it possible, she says, that women get a "double-dose" of protection.

[BoSoxGal]

Obesity is definitely a specific risk factor - greater body mass already puts greater strain on the heart and lungs in the best of conditions, so the obese struggle much harder with cardio-pulmonary illnesses. Additionally, we now know (and have known for years) that body fat isn’t just passive tissue that requires more effort to lug around and is generally not aesthetically pleasing - it is active tissue that creates a constant, long term inflammatory environment in the body that keeps the organ systems under constant, long term stress and keeps the immune system constantly flared up (because inflammation triggers an immune response) which makes it that much more likely that an obese patient’s body will go into cytokine storm and kill itself while trying to fight the virus.

Obese and morbidly obese and super morbidly obese people should be terrified of getting covid19.

[Gob]

I posted about that the other day, see also...

Britons from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are disproportionately at high risk from coronavirus, according to new data.

Figures published by NHS England show that of 13,918 patients in England who tested positive for Covid-19 at time of death up to April 17, 16.2 per cent were BAME and 0.7 per cent had mixed ethnicity.

These groups also accounted for 35 per cent of all coronavirus patients in intensive care, according to the Guardian, despite only making up 13 per cent of the population.

The statistics emerged days after a review was announced to examine what appears to be a disproportionate number of BAME people who have been affected by Covid-19.

Those with Indian heritage are the most affected, making up three per cent of hospital deaths, followed by those from the Caribbean at 2.9 per cent and Africans at 1.9 per cent.

The first 10 doctors to die in the UK from Covid-19 were all from BAME backgrounds - with ancestry from regions including Asia, the Middle East and Africa, a figure Labour described as 'deeply disturbing'.

Analysis from Sky News suggests that of 54 medical and care staff killed by coronavirus, 70 per cent were non-white.

BAME staff make up 44 per cent of medical personnel and Labour and the British Medical Association were among those calling for an inquiry.

In the 2011 UK census, around 7.5 per cent of the population were Asian and 3.3 per cent black.

[Guinevere]

Hospital analysis: Nearly half of COVID-19 patients are obese

and

The United States has more obese people — about 40 percent of the overall population — than any other major nation,

I'm not sure this proves anything beyond that COV is an equal opportunity virus.

https://www.axios.com/nursing-homes-cor ... ecebd.html

Many of the corona-related deaths, and at least half in Massachusetts, are those in long-term care facilities. Age and underlying medical conditions still being the most significant relationship between COVID-19 and mortality.

[Guinevere]

Not quite "equal", Andy. Simply being male seems to be a significant risk factor. Yes, even after controlling for just about everything else.

[...] sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen seem to be important in modulating the immune response, says Veena Taneja of the Mayo Clinic, who studies differences in male and female immune systems.

What's more, she says, women also have two copies of the X chromosome, while men have only one.

"The X chromosome has lots of immune-response genes," Taneja says.

While women's extra X chromosome is generally silenced, she says, "almost around 10% of those genes, they can be activated. Many of those genes are actually immune-response genes."

That makes it possible, she says, that women get a "double-dose" of protection.

And then there is this:
https://nypost.com/2020/04/19/testicle ... e=mail_app

The coronavirus could linger in the testicles, making men prone to longer, more severe cases of the illness, according to a new study.

Researchers tracked the recovery of 68 patients in Mumbai, India, to study the gender disparity of the virus, which has taken a worse toll on men, according to a preliminary report posted on MedRxix, which hosts unpublished medical research papers that have not been peer reviewed.

Dr. Aditi Shastri, an oncologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and her mother, Dr. Jayanthi Shastri, a microbiologist at the Kasturba Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Mumbai, said the virus attaches itself to a protein that occurs in high levels in the testicles.

This protein, known as angiotensin converting enzyme 2, or ACE2, is present in the lungs, the gastrointestinal tract and the heart in addition to large quantities in the testicles.

But since testicles are walled off from the immune system, the virus could harbor there for longer periods than the rest of the body, according to the study.

The mother-daughter researchers said these findings may explain why women bounce back from the virus more quickly than men.

They determined that the average amount of time for female patients to be cleared of the virus was four days, while men saw recoveries that on average were two days longer, the report said.

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“These observations demonstrate that male subjects have delayed viral clearance,” the authors wrote, adding that the testicles may be serving as “reservoirs” for the virus.

The study may offer an explanation for reports out of Italy, South Korea and New York City that men are dying at higher rates from the virus.

Others have suggested that men are more vulnerable because they are more likely to smoke, have high blood pressure or suffer coronary artery disease.

[MajGenl.Meade]

The coronavirus could linger in the testicles

At some of "our" ages (ahem) we should be in no danger. Even we don't linger there any more....

Maybe it's just me