Being Very Overweight Versus the Immune System: What Who Died from the Coronavirus Told Us

Executive Summary

• Coronavirus mortality differs enormously by age and fitness level of the victim.
• We cover the likely reason for this.

Introduction

The media has given an enormous amount of coverage of the Coronavirus. However, they have tended to cover the virus in a very sensational and, therefore, non-analytical way.

Let us get into the data on the mortality of the Coronavirus to see what it tells us.

Our References for This Article

If you want to see our references for this article and related Brightwork articles, visit this link.

Mortality by Age

The following table is from World O Meters, which has become the go-to site for Coronavirus statistics.

Notice the dramatically increasing mortality by age.

If we look at people in the 70 to 79-year-old category, they have mortality from Coronavirus that is 40 times higher than someone in the 30 to 39-year-old category. People above 80 have a mortality rate 74 times higher than those in the 30 to 39-year-old category. This tells us that the vast majority of deaths from Coronavirus have been the aged. This tells me that many, if not perhaps, most of the people dying from Coronavirus are having their deaths pulled forward a few years.

Major media outlets have largely argued against this analysis but point to anecdotes of young people and “perfectly healthy” who have died.

• First, the anecdotes do not tell us the overall trend.
• Second, as the victims who were declared perfectly healthy were not given a full medical exam before falling ill, we don’t know what unpublished underlying issues they had.

No Underlying Symptoms in Some of the Coronavirus Deaths?

The article, Coronavirus Ravages 7 Members of a Single Family, Killing 4, in the New York Times was widely read. And it describes exactly what the title says about how the Fusco family of New Jersey had a very high mortality rate from the virus.

\However, the following quotation was found in the article.

the state’s health commissioner, Judith M. Persichilli, has said Ms. Fusco-Jackson had no underlying health problems.

Ms. Paradiso Fodera said the woman’s younger siblings were also in good health before contracting the virus.

“They’re young and they don’t have any underlying conditions,” Ms. Paradiso Fodera said.

It was unclear whether Mrs. Fusco, a heavyset woman, had underlying health problems.

The term “heavyset” is a PC term for fat or overweight. Whose feelings are we trying to save here?

Ms. Fusco’s?

Well, she is dead. Perhaps it saves her family’s feelings to not have their recently deceased mother as overweight or obese. However, “heavyset” is not a medical term. Big-boned or other euphemisms also don’t belong in an article about a medical condition.

Then we can review a picture taken of the family.

Ms. Fusco is wearing a grey dress. 

According to the New York Times…

“They’re young and they don’t have any underlying conditions.”

However, nearly everyone in this photo is overweight, and some are quite overweight.

Any person with this body mass has underlying health issues. This is not fat-shaming, I don’t care what the Fusco family decided to weigh, but the analysis that the Fusco family were normal healthy individuals is just not accurate. Furthermore, the Fusco’s had a high mortality rate from Coronavirus; isn’t it likely that their physical condition was a very likely reason for this? Yet, the New York Times presents this as a great mystery.

This plays into the storyline that the media has largely been running with that.

“Anyone can die from Coronavirus.”

This is supposed to be some wisdom. The current idea of “wisdom” is that any factor affects all groups. This is a view in entire opposition to data analysis. One is allowed to point out discrepancies, but only if those discrepancies fit within some PC paradigm. For example, Coronavirus also has higher mortality with African Americans.

Major media was willing to cover the racial differences in Coronavirus deaths, even though the ratio was roughly 2x higher for African Americans than other races. 

Major media was far less interested in covering the age differences in the Coronavirus, even though the proportion is (as we covered) 40x to 76x, which is far higher than the African American differences of 2x.

The actual discrepancy seems to be of little importance to major media.

Instead, they notice some discrepancies that are “catnip” to them and then ignore or underreport far higher discrepancies. This reporting, for example, extends to the reporting of the percentage of homeless that are female. (which has been reported in some articles be 1 out of 4). The articles on this topic have tended to ignore the 3 out of 4 men that are homeless and ask…

“How can we reduce the homelessness with women!”

So yes, perhaps anyone can die from the Coronavirus, but not with anywhere near equal probability. As the table shows.

Understanding The Relationship Between Mortality and Underlying Conditions

The topic of cardiovascular fitness and being able to fight Coronavirus is found in another table from the World O Meter.

Notice the #1 most important pre-existing condition is cardiovascular disease. I think this is because of the body’s ability to bring in oxygen and remove waste to fight the virus. If one’s cardiovascular health is low, one is generally more susceptible to infection. This is why heavy people have higher mortality after surgery. This is not entirely a single factor dependency.

People can be heavy or overweight but still, be relatively active. An active person still has a high lung capacity and cardiovascular condition, even if overweight. Research indicates that activity is often as important, if not more important, than one’s body mass measurement (something generally resisted by the medical community).

However, physical inactivity and obesity have a high correlation. There is no possible way that many of the people in this photo of the Fusco family were overweight but were physically active. This means that many of the members of the Fusco family could not rely on a more normal body weight or being overweight but physically active to increase their body function to fight after they contracted the Coronavirus.

The Influence of Cardiovascular Fitness on Fighting the Coronavirus

If a compromised cardiovascular system made one more susceptible to dying from the Coronavirus, it stands to reason that good cardiovascular fitness would do the opposite.

The best defense (that is, after one has been infected with the Coronavirus, not keeping from being infected) is good physical condition. Closing the gyms reduces the transmission, but it has the paradoxical effect of lowering fitness, reducing one’s ability to fight Corona once or if one has contracted the virus.

The Influence of Lung Health on Fighting the Coronavirus

The #3 most important pre-existing condition that predicts mortality in chronic respiratory disease. This also makes sense as Coronvirus primarily attacks the lungs — but as doctors learn more about the virus, it seems to attack other organs as well, perhaps even the brain.