Obesity link to UK Covid toll

BRITAIN’S status as the ‘ sick man of Europe’ led to our shocking death toll from Covid, experts have claimed.

High standards of NHS care that help many of us live longer with diabetes and survive heart attacks has meant we may have been left more exposed to the virus.

Increasing numbers of older patients living with multiple illnesses ensured many were more vulnerable than our neighbours, said one leading obesity researcher.

Speaking on The Mail on Sunday’s Medical Minefield podcast, Professor Naveed Sattar, a top diabetes expert at the University of Glasgow, said: ‘A third of our nation are in the obese category. This is much higher than other parts of Europe and does contribute to the high excess [Covid] mortality that we’ve seen in the UK.’

Data shows being obese can raise Covid morbidity by nearly 50 per cent.

But our unhealthy lifestyles aren’t solely to blame. Instead, Prof Sattar suggested: ‘ We have an excellent Health Service but the consequence of this is we have more people living longer with underlying health problems than many other parts of the world.’

Last month, MP Therese Coffey was lambasted for suggesting on ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the UK’s Covid death toll was one of the highest in Europe because Britons were ‘old and obese’.

The UK is also the most obese country in western Europe, with rates rising faster than in the United States.