Former government medical advisor Sally Davies also attributes the high coronavirus death rate in the UK to being overweight. „There is a direct correlation between being very overweight and high Covid mortality,“ Davies, who advised the government on medical issues until last year, told Times Radio today. Obesity – defined as body mass index (BMI) over 30 – increases the risk of dying from Covid-19 by almost 50 percent.
„One of the reasons we have a problem with our weight is because of the structural environment where advertising, portion sizes and many other things come into play,“ said Davies. Thousands of coronavirus deaths could have been prevented if politicians had tackled the obesity crisis in a timely and effective manner, the medical professional said.
Johnson put topic on the agenda
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson actually put the issue on the political agenda after his severe coronavirus illness in the spring and admitted that the British were the nation in Europe with the highest proportion of overweight people after the Maltese.
So far it has remained with announcements. With more than 65,000 deaths in which Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, the UK is considered the country in Europe hardest hit by the pandemic to date.
