Covid-19's Hidden Lesson

Lose weight to be safer from it, and from many other ailments as well

- Chetan Bhagat

A recent study done by America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed a startling metric: 78% of people who have been hospitalised, needed a ventilator, or died from Covid-19 in the US were overweight or obese.

The US is one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19. It’s also a country with staggering obesity rates. According to CDC, 42% of the US population was obese in 2018. Around two-thirds of the US, the population is overweight.

Obesity is defined as a BMI (body mass index) of over 30. Being overweight is having a BMI over 25. Your BMI can be derived by dividing your weight in kilos by the square of your height in meters (more easily, google BMI calculators and enter your weight and height). As an illustration, a person of BMI 30 with a 5’8” height would weigh 90kg. A BMI 25, 5’8” person would weigh 75kg.

BMI isn’t a perfect measure but is still a useful, simple, and universally accepted benchmark. Excess weight has always been associated with medical risks, such as cardiac disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, joint issues, and stroke. Now, we can add Covid-19 to the list as well. However, while we recommended global lockdowns, mask mandates, and social distancing, we’ve not had the guts to publicly acknowledge what also needs to be done – people need to lose some weight to be safe from Covid-19.

We might say obesity is an American problem. Indians don’t have this issue to that magnitude. Sure, our population isn’t 42% obese (yet). In fact, we even have hunger and malnutrition in the poorer segments of the population. However, in the middle class and affluent population, there’s a growing obesity epidemic.