Let's launch a national diet campaign now to save lives

For a month we have been looking at international stats on Covid-19 trying to piece together the puzzle. Men are worse affected than women, older people are more likely to suffer, those with underlying health issues are especially vulnerable, and BAME groups are disproportionately represented among critically ill patients.

Still, one pattern that has stimulated less discussion is the number of critically ill Covid-19 patients who are overweight or obese.

The scientific journal Nature stated on April 2nd: “Type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension are the most common comorbidities in patients with coronavirus infections. Emerging evidence demonstrates an important direct metabolic and endocrine mechanistic link to the viral disease process.”

The same ailments keep emerging: diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Data from the first 2204 Covid ICU admissions show 73 per cent were overweight, a condition linked to those diseases.

Not only does carrying more visceral weight put greater pressure on the lungs, excess body fat causes the immune system to dysfunction, instigating the cytokine storm that floods lungs causing pneumonia-like complications.

For decades successive governments have been negligent in tackling obesity head on. Whether it’s subservience to the food and drink industry that contributes almost £30bn to the economy, or an aversion to becoming a Nanny State, obesity has ballooned without concerted intervention. More than half of the British diet is ultra-processed food with 60 per cent of the population overweight.