The Potential Impacts of Obesity on COVID-19

Barrow in Furness, UHMBT, LA14 4LF, Cumbria, UK
 Coronavirus disease 2019 is the outbreak caused by a new strain of coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 1. The outbreak that leads to a global pandemic originated from the city of Wuhan in China 2. According to a CDC report, the commonest underlying conditions among those hospitalized with COVID-19 were diabetes, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease 1. Obesity is a common denominator for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Previous experience with the H1N1 epidemic showed that obesity is associated with high mortality 3. All of these observations have raised concerns about the impacts that obesity could have on COVID-19.