[brigandish]

From the foreword to the World Obesity report, COVID-19 and Obesity: The 2021 Atlas [1]:

> As we show in this report, increased bodyweight is the second greatest predictor of hospitalisation and a high risk of death for people suffering from COVID-19. Only old age rates as a higher risk factor.

> Reducing one major risk factor, overweight, would have resulted in far less stress on health services and reduced the need to protect those services from being overwhelmed.

> We show that in those countries where overweight affects only a minority of the adult population, the rates of death from COVID-19 are typically less than one tenth the levels found in countries where overweight affects the majority of adults.

> We also show that the drivers of overweight – especially high levels of consumption of processed foods – are associated with mortality from COVID-19.

The report itself goes into much greater detail, is very readable and interesting, and I highly recommend it.

[1] https://www.worldobesity.org/resources/resource-library/covi...