Covid-19 is exposing Brazil’s obesity epidemic

As its Covid-19 curve is set to spike, Brazil is beginning to realize that a much larger portion of its population may be highly vulnerable to the novel coronavirus. At first, it was believed that only senior citizens and those with pre-existing pulmonary or cardiovascular conditions were in the so-called “high-risk group.” While that in itself would be a problem, as our April 20 Weekly Report showed that 50 million Brazilians fall into these categories, researchers are now saying that the main risk factor, regardless of age, is obesity.

That means that 20 percent of the Brazilian population could be at risk.

According to the most recent data from the Health Ministry, 70 percent of the 2,462 Brazilian patients who died from Covid-19 as of April 19 had at least one additional...