Nearly 90 percent of coronavirus fatalities have occurred in countries with high levels of obesity, according to researchers, who now want overweight people to be given priority for vaccination.
Mortality rates were ten times higher in countries like the United States, where at least 50 percent of the total population is overweight, according to a study backed by the World Health Organization released Thursday by the World Obesity Federation.
“[This] it must act as a wake-up call to governments around the world, ”said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, according to the Financial Times. “The correlation between obesity and mortality rates of COVID-19 is clear and compelling.”
Weight is now believed to be the second predictor of serious diseases caused by the virus after age, according to the study, which represents medical professionals from 50 regional and national obesity associations.
For the report, the researchers examined mortality data from Johns Hopkins University and data from the WHO World Health Observatory showing that a total of 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths worldwide were in countries with high levels of obesity.
According to the report, the researchers found no examples of high mortality rates for COVID-19 in countries where less than 40% of the population was overweight.
For example, Vietnam has the lowest coronavirus mortality rate in the world and the second lowest level of overweight people, with only 0.04 deaths per 100,000 from COVID-19 with 18.3% of overweight adults, according to WHO data.
By contrast, the UK has the third highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the world and the fourth obesity rate, with 184 deaths per 100,000 and 63.7 per cent of overweight adults.
The United States recorded approximately 152 deaths from COVID-19 per 100,000 and has an obesity rate of 68%.
Tim Lobstein, senior political adviser to the WOF and author of the report, called the increase in national obesity-related mortality rates “dramatic.”
Meanwhile, according to a study published last month, the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine may be less effective in protecting obese people.
Researchers in Rome found that obese people who had received two doses of the vaccine generated a weaker antibody response, according to a report by prepress server Medrxiv.
The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, assessed the effect of the vaccine on 248 health workers seven days after the final dose, the Guardian reported.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Regina Elena, found that those considered obese, defined as a body mass index greater than 30, produced about half the amount of antibodies compared to people who were overweight. healthy body, according to The Guardian.
It is currently unknown what level of antibodies is needed to neutralize the virus, but experts fear that a reduced antibody response may hamper inoculation efforts.