Why overweight people are vulnerable to Covid-19; how doctors can help – Wall Street Journal

According to Healthy Living Alliance – quoted on Health-e news  – over four million people in South Africa live with diabetes, a disease which is emerging as a major risk factor for severe Covid-19 symptoms, and mortality. And nearly 70% of women and 40% of men in the country are either overweight or obese – also a coronavirus risk factor.  The Health-e article looks at strategies used by the food and beverage industry in South Africa to negatively influence policies aimed at promoting health, which is one factor in the wave of obesity that confronts South Africa and the rest of the world. Traditionally, the medical approach to dealing with obesity has been to suggest behavioural change (eat less, move more) – or to ignore the problem altogether. But the role of obesity in increasing people's risk of severe Covid-19 symptoms means that there is new urgency to treat this long-standing public health problem. And a growing body of knowledge suggests that there is way more to it than cutting calories. – Renee Moodie

As obesity grows, new strategies to combat it

By Laura Landro

In the Covid-19 pandemic, people with obesity are at higher risk for severe illness and death — adding new urgency to efforts to rethink the way doctors treat what has long been a public-health problem.

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