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Corona / Covid-19 Virus - General Discussion (politics go to the Off Topic / Politics thread)

Graham wrote:

but it’s quite clear that the biggest (non-age-related) risk factor for a bad case of Covid-19 is being overweight and having other (related) comorbidities. It is amazing that despite how frightened many people profess to be of Covid-19, they do not appear sufficiently motivated by that fear to bring their weight down and improve their own chances.

While the first half of your statement is obviously right – the second half is, however, questionable.

Clear data shows that overweight people have worse outlook if they acquire Covid then non overweight people. What starts to become less clear is, if weight is really a root cause of this or if there is another root cause (like other morbidities) that have a negative impact both on wheight as on Covid survival.

What is completely unclear, however, is, if overweight people can improve their Covid risk profile by starting to (try to) loose weight. That question has to components:
1. Can you loose enough weight during the pandemic to effectively change your risk profile? I.e.: Do the 10 kg you can realistically lose really change the needle?
2. (Even more importantly): Is your risk profile better or even worse while you are in the process of loosing weight? What we know is, that your risk profile is better when you are at stable lower weight. What we do not know is what the risk looks like while you are in transition – a phase of malnutrition in the first place!

Point 2 is actually not very far fetched although there has not been so much research done so far on risk of infectious respiratory diseases during a calorie restricted diet. To make a comparison to a field that is better researched: We know that having an active lifestyle (like multiple regular workouts a week, etc.) significantly reduces your risk of cardiovascular diseases. But we also know, that starting an active lifestyle from along period of inactivity is amongst the most risky things you can do in the short term (risk of heart attack and stroke is substantially increased in the short term). This increased risk is obviously not that high, that in the long term the net effe3ct of starting to work out is not positive, but especially “significantly inactive” people need close monitoring in the first couple of weeks/months.
Coming back to Covid: The actually better strategy for the overweight might well be, to not try to loose weight during Covid, but rather maintain they weight (as healthy as possible) and start to reduce after the current pandemic risk is over and than loos weight to be prepared for the next pandemic.

Germany

The paper referenced by that study uses a different assay and the values (given in arbitrary units) may not be directly comparable.

@kwlf is there any way to make them comparable?

It might be an interesting exercise.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

RobertL18C wrote:

With UK daily infection rate rising once again exponentially (heading for 50,000 a day), am guessing they (HM’s Government) might observe the effect of re introducing some relevant health policies (mask wearing, crowd events) to be in line with more enlightened major European countries.

What makes you think that the current various EU countries’ rules on “mask wearing” and “crowd events” are in any way logical or “enlightened”?

Anybody that spends any time wearing any kind of protective mask for reasons other than “C19 rules” in the workplace and has had to do any HSE training wrt that mask’s properties, knows that the previous/current “trend” for masks to be worn is “C19 symbolism” as opposed to a practical measure to prevent infection.

Regards, SD..

@Malibuflyer I’m sorry I cannot get on board with any of that, it’s just making excuses and avoiding any personal responsibility.

Yes the evidence is clear, yes 10kg (or whatever you need to lose) moves the dial, and yes people should just get on with it. If your life is at risk to a degree that bothers you, then one doesn’t mess around with trying to find reasons not to do it.

I can assure you, people have not failed to lose weight because of the nuanced and rather fanciful arguments you’ve put forward. They’ve failed to do it because they lack motivation, lack willpower, and have a sense of entitlement that governments ought to act to protect them as they are.

EGLM & EGTN

Graham wrote:

I don’t know if your statement is tongue-in-cheek

He he. If you knew (of) him you would know he is extremely unlikely to die from Covid. But no, that was not my intention although it very well could be considering his overall condition. My point was that all we really can do, and that has proven to help, is to take those vaccines. What happens despite the vaccines is something no one can do anything about at this point. If we have an intention of living our lives rather than surviving in isolation that is.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Graham wrote:

Yes the evidence is clear, yes 10kg (or whatever you need to lose) moves the dial,

Obesity is the No1 killer of humans. Many co-morbidities are as a direct result of obesity and uncontrolled weight gain and the inability to shift that mass.

There is a clear and evidenced correlation between poverty and obesity. We seem to be going berserk to control death by Covid, and yet turn the proverbial blind eye to staggering child poverty within the UK and the US.

It is not actually that easy to lose 10kg from your frame….as always a myriad of reasons as to why…

Fly safe. I want this thing to land l...
EGPF Glasgow

Agreed… Losing 10kg is very easy if you are say 20kg+ overweight.

We’ve done this before many times but eating veg enables weight loss, of say 10% over a few months, without getting hungry or having any trouble all

Still, there will always be deniers. Being too heavy does damage throughout the body, which is why the CV19 prognosis is so much worse. It isn’t because the virus says to itself “hey this guy is 30% overweight; let’s get him!”

The latest data from my area of the UK shows no increase in deaths

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Food/health/obesity discussion moved to the usual place

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

“The paper referenced by that study uses a different assay and the values (given in arbitrary units) may not be directly comparable.”

@kwlf is there any way to make them comparable?

It might be an interesting exercise.

You could try this paper as a starting point.

Interesting; many thanks.

The Abbott test, used by London Medical, returns a much higher value than the others

which makes my antibody level of 730 in the right ballpark (for an effective immunity) for that test. However I can’t work out how this relates to this

Vaccine efficacy of 80% against primary symptomatic COVID-19 was achieved with an IgG level of 40,923 arbitrary units (AU)/mL for anti-spike and 63,383 Au/mL for anti-RBD. For pseudovirus and live virus-neutralizing antibody titers, a vaccine efficacy of 80% against symptomatic infection was achieved at neutralizing titers of 185 and 247, respectively.

here.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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