Scientists link excess weight to COVID superspreading

People with a high body mass index (BMI) and elderly citizens can be the coronavirus ‘superspreaders’, Report informs, referring to the conclusion reached by experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

They checked how many respiratory droplets different groups of people could emit and analyzed their gender, weight and age. It turned out that obese and elderly emit more aerosol, that is, in case of infection, they will exhale more viral particles.

"No correlation was found with sex, while significant correlations were observed between exhaled aerosol, age, and BMI—and particularly BMI-years," the American scientists said.

According to the WHO recommendations, the BMI indicator from 18.5 to 25 is normal. With a BMI of 25 to 30, overweight is diagnosed, above 30 - obesity.

In the experiment of American scientists, 18 percent of people (35 out of 194) accounted for 80 percent of the exhaled aerosol from the entire group. Half of the group (73 people) with the lowest BMI exhaled significantly fewer respiratory droplets than the other half with the highest weight. The lowest level of viral shedding was observed in people under 26 years of age with a BMI below 22.