[alexrson]

In the cited article, the only statistic I see on weight specifically is that 74% of critically ill UK patients were overweight or obese, which makes it a risk factor but not the be all and end all, given what fraction of the whole pop fits that category (~65%).

It also says that 99% of deaths in Italy were from patients with pre-existing conditions, which would included weight related and non-weight related ones.

Regardless of COVID, maintaining a healthy weight is probably one of more important lifestyle changes one can make to reduce risk of overall mortality.

[zelly]

The summary statistic leaves out the effect of age. Most of the non-overweight people who died were old. The main reason you'd die of covid if you are young is being overweight or obese:

> Patients with BMIs greater than 40 kg/m2 had higher death rates overall, and those with BMIs greater than 45 kg/m2 had a risk ratio of 4.18. Most strikingly, however, those younger than 60 years had increased risk ratios of 12 to 17 versus 1 to 3 if they were older; high BMI increased risk in men more than in women.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-5677