Mike Gibney: We’ll need more than an app to overcome obesity

Covid-19 is yet another stick to beat the overweight with, but real solutions are at hand – and they don’t involve stigmatising people

‘Having excess body fat raises the risk from the virus – yet another stigma for the overweight to bear.’ Picture: Getty

It has taken the Covid-19 pandemic to refocus attention on another serious public health issue. There is no denying that high levels of obesity significantly increase the risk from the disease, but behind that headline there lies a lot of fog.

Recently, the UK Biobank, which stores data on 500,000 adults, identified those among its participants who had had a confirmed case of Covid-19. And yes, on average, the more overweight the individual, the greater ...