Posts Tagged ‘COVID-19’

A new study this week in the New England Journal of Medicine brought home a basic fact. Severe illness and deaths from COVID in adolescents are almost entirely preventable. This is especially true for youth with conditions – like obesity – that would otherwise put them at risk. In a case-control study of 1,222 adolescents, […]

Many of us are on an anxious journey right now. We know that being older, or living with a condition like obesity, means added risks for COVID. So we’ve been careful. But now the Omicron variant adds a bit of uncertainty because it is so contagious and so many people are getting the infection. Yet, […]

In the midst of a huge surge of COVID cases due to omicron, hospitals are seeing a remarkable growth in children admitted with COVID. Until last week, the record for daily hospital admissions of children up to 17 years old with COVID was 340. That’s a seven-day average. But last week brought nearly twice as […]

Early in the pandemic, a couple of things were clear about COVID risk. First, and most important, age is a person’s biggest risk factor. But that’s obviously not a modifiable risk. Soon after that was apparent, another risk factor became apparent – obesity. The risk linked to obesity was not as great as age, but […]

Hope is, by its very nature, unreasonable. It is not based on empiric evidence. Shane Lopez, editor of the Oxford Handbook of Hope, defined it as: “The belief that the future will be better than the present, along with the belief that you have the power to make it so.” Today, we feel the need […]

These holidays are supposed to be joyful. But we are into a second year of holidays that are bringing the sorrow of isolation, loneliness, and loss every bit as much as they are bringing joy. The uncertainty of omicron is disrupting joyful plans for many people in this season. So no, this is not our […]

It’s an odd intersection. On one hand, people are totally done with diets right now. And yet, here comes the news that people are reading about weight loss more than any other health topic online. More than COVID, which came in second. How can it be that anti-diet sentiment is so strong at the same […]

Our roller coaster ride is not over. Not by a long shot. Back in July, optimism about putting the COVID pandemic behind us was high. A record number of people told Gallup they felt they were thriving. The swing from a 12-year low was remarkable. But now it seems a more truthful assessment is that […]

We can’t believe it either. This weird, messy year is winding down and it’s time to figure out what just happened as we prepare to go into an new year of promise and uncertainty. In obesity and health, 2021 was full of change, confusion, and new insights. We started the year with a raging pandemic, […]

We’re hearing a lot about antibodies and immunity to COVID-19 and its new variants right now. But unfortunately, a lot of it is speculation that does more to confuse our response than to make us smarter. Omicron significantly reduces Covid antibody protection in small study of Pfizer vaccine recipients, says a typical headline. This is […]