Obesity is the biggest risk factor for serious corona complications. Look at Japan, SK, and Taiwan, all obesity rates in the low single digits.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-06-12/other-pandemic-worsening-coronavirus-obesity
There are a lot of possible explanations for why Japan has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic better than the United States. It’s possible that the Japanese are more used to wearing masks, that the government used contact tracing to more effectively to contain outbreaks, and that handshakes aren’t a widespread cultural practice. But according to Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and the dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, one of the major reasons Japan is dealing with the coronavirus more successfully than the United States is because of another problem: obesity.
America has one of the highest rates of obesity in the developed world, and Japan has one of the lowest. And it’s obesity that’s making America’s response to COVID-19 much more difficult.
How difficult? According to a recent study of COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York City, it’s a major concern. Mozaffarian explains that, “if someone has moderate obesity … they’re about four-fold more likely to be hospitalized, if they have severe obesity … they have a six-fold higher risk of being hospitalized.” Obesity was more important in determining hospitalization than high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and kidney disease. In fact, after age, it was the biggest factor driving hospitalizations.
And that means America is uniquely vulnerable.
