The obesity factor

About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid have been in countries with high proportions of overweight people, according to a report by the World Obesity Federation. The issue is not just obesity but body mass indexes that are now regarded as normal across the West.

The biggest factor in Covid mortality remains age, but where more than 50 per cent of the population is overweight, death rates are 10 times higher. Vietnam, with the lowest level of overweight people in its population, also enjoys the second lowest coronavirus death rate in the world.

There needs to be an honest audit of why some parts of the world have fared better than others. Experience is one answer – some East Asian countries had learned the lessons of Sars – as are policy choices and administrative competence.

But a society as unhealthy as ours undeniably pays a price: in modern Britain, one in three patients admitted to a hospital as an emergency have five or more health problems (including obesity or diabetes).

The experience of Covid should not be cynically manipulated to apply guilt. But there is a place for a mature conversation about mortality and its relationship to personal choice.

During lockdown many have felt frightened and trapped, their agency stripped from them. As we regain control of our lives, it makes sense to promote self-governance and freedom, by explaining how risk works and extolling the benefits of exercise and good diet.

The cultural normalisation of obesity certainly has to end. The situation will only get worse if we pretend poor choices have no consequences.