Meredith WadmanScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.He was admitted directly to the intensive care unit (ICU) and was on a ventilator within hours.
Two weeks later, he died.“He was a young, healthy, hardworking guy,” recalls MaryEllen Antkowiak, a pulmonary critical care physician who is medical director of the hospital’s ICU. “His major risk factor for getting this sick was obesity.”Since the pandemic began, dozens of studies have reported that many of the sickest COVID-19 patients have been people with obesity.
In recent weeks, that link has come into sharper focus as large new population studies have cemented the association and demonstrated that even people who are merely.