Healthcare

Obesity is important, but not a decisive factor in Covid death rates


SUGGESTED

Healthcare

Professor Len Shackleton quoted in the Daily Express

In the Media

Julian Jessop quoted in Daily Express

Christopher Snowdon writes a letter to The Times

It has been reported that countries with high levels of obesity have suffered greater losses in life from Covid-19. But as IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon wrote in a letter to the Editor of the Times, “we should not infer causation”.

Snowdon argued: “Obesity certainly increases the individual’s risk of dying from Covid-19 but it is not a decisive factor when comparing nations, as the cases of New Zealand and Australia (both of which have a higher rate of obesity than the UK) can confirm”.

Read the full letter here.



Newsletter Signup