Mange af USA’s covid-dødsfald skyldes overvægt og fedme

Pandemien afslører samfundets store udfordringer med fattigdom, uddannelse og boligforhold.

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Many of the United States’ Covid deaths are due to obesity and obesity.

The pandemic reveals some of society´s greatest challenges – poverty, education and housing.

We often hear that Denmark is behind America by about a 10-year delay.

This seems to also be the case with overweight and obesity. Denmark still has a much healthier population than the US , but more and more Danes are becoming overweight.

If there is one thing the Corona Pandemic has given us, it is data. Data on age, gender and social status. And data on who it is that ends up in the hospitals.

Data from the health authorities (CDC) here in the United States, indicates that 78% of those admitted with Covid-19 (April-December 2020) were overweight.

My intend is not to “body shame” anyone. I am interested in investigating what the background of elevated Covid deaths is and I am interested in the reasons for obesity. We must address problems where we see them. So we can react to what we are facing. So we can do something about it.

Addressing obesity is a taboo – both talking about it as a problem and to relate to why so many become seriously ill in minority environments.

Anyone can die of Corona. We know that all too well. However, if you are overweight, your chances of survival are generally less and your healing process longer. The question is who in our society is statistically overweight.

For it is here that the hospital bed, so to speak, lies buried and reveals an underlying societal problem. And when we look a little closer at the overweight group of citizens, a picture emerges that should make us change our view of society, poverty, education and housing conditions.

Countries such as Denmark, which generally have a healthy population, has not had the same development in serious Covid disease cases and – death , as we have in the US, where both health, housing, access to education and healthcare and to nutritious food for many Americans cannot be compared to the conditions in Denmark.

On a micro level, this does relate to you and me to a very high degree, because the healthcare system must be able to treat other than Covid cases. In the United States, more and more hospitals are reporting that they have problems treating non-Covid patients, such as victims of car crashes.

Denmark is doing a lot of what the United States has not yet understood to be the right thing to do. Here in the United States , fast food is cheaper than healthy food, which means that many do not have the luxury of being able to choose to feed their family with a healthy and nutritious diet. I am aware that healthy food is also expensive in Denmark, but the difference is by no means close to what we experience here in the US.

Here, people go to their cars and drive to their destination instead of being part of a community designed to get around – on foot or by bike.

Here, it costs a fortune to sign your children up for after school activities. Many kids are sitting in front of the screens after school. In Denmark, there are sports clubs which, due to the volunteer run model, make it possible for both kids from poor and wealthy parents to get exercise.

There is still a difference between Denmark and the USA. But it does not change the fact that there is also a tendency in Denmark for the population to become fatter.

The issue is public health and society’s attitude that should concern all of us . As long as we accept differences in society that are directly related to housing, education and ethnicity, there will be an over-representation of overweight in Covid-deaths here in God’s own obesity affected country and in little Denmark.

(Google Translate)