I guess this is a right-wing anti vax study from TSN . Someone really needs to get a grip!
Antivax never used to be just right-wing. I'm not sure why during COVID the two seem to go together. Anyway i don't claim that all TSN's posts are antivax - only about 75%.
TrialSite reports that it is worth noting that one source referenced in the article reveals that of the hospitalized adolescents in the Spring of 2021 for COVID-19, 71% had one or more underlying medical conditions, obesity being the most common (36%). Of course, this study didn’t cover data during the height of the Delta surge, which may have altered the findings, although the strong association between obesity and more severe COVID appears to have held during the Delta wave as well.
I don't understand why the fact that ill / overweight people are more at risk from COVID is interesting.
I think some antivaxers have this rather unpleasant "I am fit and not old - only unhealthy or old people get COVID - the old will die anyway, the unhealthy probably deserve it and don't count" mentality. Reminiscent of Nazi adulation of fit Aryan youth. I notice it in some of W's posts here, though after we convinced him that age 60+ healthy were at risk from COVID he seems to have gone quiet.
The serious point is that the data here is as expected. Being severely overweight increases risk. As do other comorbidities. True for young and old alike. The point is that in both cases the increased risk seems relatively small - a factor of 2 or so. And perfectly healthy people are also at risk not muhc smaller than the population average. That makes sense because a lot of whether COVID hurts you is down to how strongly your immune system removed the infection balanced against how badly affected are you by the way COVID mucks up your immune system. Both have a lot of variability between people that does not correlate with general health.
Since most people get over COVID fine, most of those people who pride themselves on being healthy will see their personal fast recovery as proof that COVID only hurts the vulnerable. It is not true, and also a dangerous way to think.