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Non-Political Coronavirus Thread

Rafi said:
No. It was not meant to imply anything; it was a statement of fact. The countries with the highest BMIs do not have the highest risk of death from COVID. The best studies of risk factors for severe COVID suggest the following order of risks: old age, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc. Obesity is #10 on this list, so it appears to be a risk but on its own not as big as several others, and I am not aware of any evidence that losing weight changes one's risk of severe COVID.
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Holy fucking stupid Batman.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Smaller countries like Tonga with lesser population densities are less at risk of overwhelming their health care system.
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How familiar are you with the Tongan health care system? Does a not overwhelmed Tongan system outperform an overwhelmed US system?
 
Tobacco Road said:
Out of all the shit you have seen on this thread, you are going after Rafi for disinformation?
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I mean using Tonga which has bad 5 total covid cases to go and draw a conclusion that BMI isn’t a risk factor for covid is textbook misinformation. It can directly lead people to make lifestyle decisions that put them at greater risk for severe covid and death. Not on these boards because no one is going full dumb but if Rafi is going around spewing this nonsense it should stop.
 
Joe Rogan fanboi coming in hot over misinformation and the potential to kill people with it.
 
I’m sure lots of people are to run out and become obese based on Rafi’s posting here.
 
PhDeac said:
How familiar are you with the Tongan health care system? Does a not overwhelmed Tongan system outperform an overwhelmed US system?
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I'm listing it as a possible reason why Tonga has such favorable outcomes re: covid. Obviously densely populated areas dealt with more spread and thus more strain on their ability to provide care.

Anecdotally, my mother who has end stage COPD is safer in a rural small community in Alaska than living in a densely populated area.
 
“Lose some weight, fatty!” isn’t catch all medical advice.
 
BiffTannen said:
Let’s do what Tonga does !
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Can’t wait for this outfit be the answer to obesity.

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BMI too high. COVID would hit.
 
ConnorEl said:
I’m sure lots of people are to run out and become obese based on Rafi’s posting here.
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Lol.

Yeah, the point with Tonga is that it is the country with the highest BMI in the world, yet they have a very low COVID death rate. This is to illustrate that the relationship between obesity and COVID death rates has some mitigating factors.

Obesity is clearly a risk factor for severe outcomes with COVID, but there are several other stronger risk factors (some of which can be tied to obesity, and some that are not). And again, we don’t know if losing weight makes a difference in regards to COVID severity. It might, but biology and medicine don’t always behave like we think they should (or want them to).

So, losing weight is great idea, for a variety of reasons, and that was true before COVID. That’s why Michelle Obama focused on childhood obesity.
 
I looked into the question of weight loss and COVID risk further. There is one decent study that was just published in the last 6 weeks in JAMA Surgery. It was sponsored by Medtronic, who makes bariatric surgery devices.

They looked at people that had bariatric surgery from 2004 to 2017 and showed they had lower risks of severe COVID compared to those that did not have bariatric surgery. So, not universally applicable, but a promising finding.
 
Rafi - what people are reacting to is you’re just spitting scientific nonsense by saying “obesity makes covid worse but there’s no evidence losing weight helps”

Of course losing weight helps.
 
dartsndeacs said:
Rafi - what people are reacting to is you’re just spitting scientific nonsense by saying “obesity makes covid worse but there’s no evidence losing weight helps”

Of course losing weight helps.
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Well that and citing Tonga as having any relevance to the issue at all, given that it is an island in the middle of nowhere, has a population of about 100k people, and has had 5 confirmed cases of Covid. But hey, none of those 5 died so being obese doesn’t matter!
 
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