William Dietz was, for 16 years, head of the United States Institute for Nutrition, Exercise and Overweight at CDC, the United States Public Health Authority. He is a medical doctor, and now warns of the risks of widespread obesity in the country. Partly because the group often has underlying diseases, and partly because the group also has poorer breathing capacity in the event of intensive care if infected by the coronavirus.
In England, data from the ICNARC Intensive Care Register show that of the first 775 people intensive care for Covid-19, almost 40 percent had a BMI over 30.
Soo Aleman, a chief physician at Karolinska Hospital, is not surprised by the figures.
- No. We know that obesity is linked to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. All the risk factors we know about today, she says.
SVT has also been in contact with state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell who does not want to draw any conclusions yet. However, he says that obesity is a risk factor when it comes to respiratory tract infections, but that the data about the corona virus is still too thin.
In Sweden, public health is better, and the situation with obesity is also much brighter.