Aside from the impeachment stories, one of the other events receiving massive press and internet coverage is the attempt to control the spread of the Coronavirus. As of the time I am writing this entry, 41 people have died, 2 people in America have been confirmed to have the disease and over 30 million Chinese people have been quarantined in the attempt to stop the spread of this potentially lethal disease.
The symptoms of Coronavirus are respiratory in nature, similar to the influenza viruses. For the elderly and more ill, contracting this disease is more dangerous than healthy people with more powerful immune systems. This is very similar to the risk brought on by the flu. The Coronavirus is spread animal to human but there are now reported cases of human to human transmission, hence the worldwide scare and precautions.
Obese people have been shown in previous studies to have a more prolonged viral influenza shedding time than non obese people. This means that obese people are a larger threat for transmission of the flu virus to others. This increase time of being infective is around 42%.
Given the similarities of the flu virus with Coronavirus, extrapolation of the increase infectivity of obese patients with the flu to the Coronavirus situation would imply a similar situation: Obese people contracting the Coronavirus would possibly create a much more dangerous spread of the virus to humans.
I have previously written entries about the negative impact on our immune systems that poor weight control causes. On many fronts, weight control will help us all stay alive longer and healthier.