NY Covid-19 hospitalizations are mostly the 68-yr-old fat & unhealthy types

Instead of taking people's temperatures as the USA returns to work - make them jump on a scale. Historically 4 of the top 5 leading causes of death in America are diseases of the fork: Heart disease, diabetes, stroke & cancer. And guess who is taking up hospital beds as you read this right now 4/25/2020? That's right. The unexercised fatties who have high blood pressure, obesity (BMI greater than 30), or diabetes.

Shocking. The same group that overwhelms during a pandemic is the chronically ill crew that will eat donuts over fruit for breakfast and pasta for dinner without exercise in between.

JAMA reports in Presenting Characteristics, Comorbidities, and Outcomes Among 5700 Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 in the New York City Area:

A total of 5700 patients were included (median age, 63 years [interquartile range {IQR}, 52-75; range, 0-107 years]; 39.7% female). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (3026; 56.6%), obesity (1737; 41.7%), and diabetes (1808; 33.8%). At triage, 30.7% of patients were febrile, 17.3% had a respiratory rate greater than 24 breaths/min, and 27.8% received supplemental oxygen. The rate of respiratory virus co-infection was 2.1%. Outcomes were assessed for 2634 patients who were discharged or had died at the study end point. During hospitalization, 373 patients (14.2%) (median age, 68 years [IQR, 56-78]; 33.5% female) were treated in the intensive care unit care, 320 (12.2%) received invasive mechanical ventilation, 81 (3.2%) were treated with kidney replacement therapy, and 553 (21%) died. As of April 4, 2020, for patients requiring mechanical ventilation (n = 1151, 20.2%), 38 (3.3%) were discharged alive, 282 (24.5%) died, and 831 (72.2%) remained in hospital. The median postdischarge follow-up time was 4.4 days (IQR, 2.2-9.3). A total of 45 patients (2.2%) were readmitted during the study period. The median time to readmission was 3 days (IQR, 1.0-4.5) for readmitted patients. Among the 3066 patients who remained hospitalized at the final study follow-up date (median age, 65 years [IQR, 54-75]), the median follow-up at time of censoring was 4.5 days (IQR, 2.4-8.1).

Do you really need to see the authors' conclusions?

Re-open America. Those dying before coronavirus are the same ones dying now.

And while we are locked down? Lose some weight. Exercise.



Update: Dr. Mike talks Depression, Death, Restlessness & other Fun Stuff caused by Covid-19 lockdown.

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