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Friday, September 29, 2023 | 
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Are you overweight? You’re at risk for severe COVID-19 complications

The Centers for Disease Control added overweight people to COVID-19 risk warning

By Herb Scribner Herb Scribnerhscribner@deseretnews.com
SHARE Are you overweight? You’re at risk for severe COVID-19 complications
In this Jan. 20, 2010, file photo, a waist is measured during an obesity prevention study in Chicago. A study published Wednesday, April 5, 2017 in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests gaining and losing weight repeatedly may be dangerous for overweight heart patients.

In this Jan. 20, 2010, file photo, a waist is measured during an obesity prevention study in Chicago.

M. Spencer Green, Associated Press

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updates its guidelines to include overweight people — not just obese people — among those who are at risk for severe COVID-19 complications.

  • This means two-thirds of Americans remain at risk for COVID-19 complications.
  • Forty percent of Americans are obese, 32% are overweight, according to the CDC.
  • The CDC said obese people can become really ill from the novel coronavirus and face hospitalization. Risk of death can increase with higher body mass index.
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Research supports this finding

Per Bloomberg, a review of 75 studies with data on COVID-19 and body mass index “found a strong relationship between those who were overweight and obese and the risks of hospitalization and needing ICU treatment.”

  • The study raised questions about whether or not a vaccine developed for the average adult would be less effective in obese and overweight populations, too, according to Bloomberg.
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Obesity on the rise

The CDC said in September that adult obesity in the U.S. is on the rise, according to Fox News.

  • “The findings may be especially concerning amid the pandemic as obesity lends worse outcomes from COVID-19, and minorities are disproportionately impacted by both the virus and obesity.”