Commentary COVID-19 has put renewed focus on obesity. As the New York Post recently reported, countries with high obesity rates such as the UK have nearly 90 percent of COVID-19 deaths, compared with countries that have less obesity such as Vietnam. Medically, obese people are more likely to contract COVID-19, suffer greater morbidity, and are more likely to transmit the virus than non-obese people. But that’s only part of the story. COVID-19 has also increased national obesity thanks to lockdowns and forced disruptions of normal life. Pre-COVID in 2019, more than 40 percent of adults were obese in the United States according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System. A 2018 National Center for Health Statistics report (pdf) found the average weight of American men in 2015–2016 was 197.9 pounds and women 170.6, up from 172.2 pounds and 144.2, respectively, in the years 1976–1980. Some joke it’s the United States’ gross national product. …