CNN covered the tragic story of a 10 year old girl who died from Covid-19 complications.
Both her parents appear to be morbidly obese, and she was clearly overweight as well.
While children overall remain at incredibly low risk of suffering from Covid-19, obese and overweight children are at higher risk of developing complications.
Unfortunately, the increase in childhood obesity was clearly not a priority issue during our fight against this virus.
In fact, it is the very measures that were imposed on our children during the pandemic, such as school closures and lockdowns, that led to an unprecedented increase in weight gain and obesity.
Not only are overweight and obese children at higher risk of Covid-19 complications, but they also have a much greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and its associated cardiovascular, retinal and renal complications, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, asthma, orthopedic complications, psychiatric disease, and cancer.
A Swedish prospective cohort study showed that the risk of mortality in early adulthood is 3 times higher in individuals who had obesity in childhood.
So, in essence, in their efforts to deal with Covid-19, public health specialists were so focused on playing Pac-Man with the virus that they dropped the ball when it came to protecting our children.
That’s the story CNN should have covered when reporting on this poor family suffering from obesity, and sadly losing a child.
How can we do better if we can’t talk about the truth?
Marc Jaoudé
Naturopath, Health Educator
Markito Fitness & Nutrition
“One size fits all” Covid-19 measures lead to more deaths in younger people