Since the pandemic seized the country about a year ago, a recent AP report indicated we have surpassed a half-million victims.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predictions, between 30,000 and 59,000 more U.S. coronavirus deaths are projected by March 13.

There has been much collateral health damage inflicted on us because of COVID-19. Fortunately many victims recovered, but some have been left with a variety of lingering problems, such as heart and lung issues, diabetes, etc.

But there are other effects of the pandemic too. With all of our government- or self-imposed quarantines at home, some of us are eating a lot more, junk food included, and have foregone physical activity.

It’s a tale of two demographics: those with money to buy food and eat too much of it, and of the wrong quality, and those who cannot afford a meal, as a result of pandemic lockdowns, layoffs, furloughs and other disasters.

Regardless of household situation, there is much collateral health damage inflicted on us because of the pandemic.

A new study, released in the Lancet, has found that obesity is one of the three greatest risk factors for suffering the most serious consequences of COVID-19, including age, according to Forbes.

“The study gives us insight into why COVID-19 has a more serious consequence for the obese and overweight,” Forbes noted from the study. “Fat cells express the receptor for SARS-CoV-2, serving as a reservoir for virus infection. Those who are overweight and obese remain infected several days longer than their aged-matched leaner counterparts.”

In the United States, 42% of Americans are obese and 32.5% are overweight, Forbes noted.

“The American obesity epidemic, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, is a double-disaster,” the magazine noted. “More than two-thirds of adult Americans are at higher risk than average of falling ill when infected by SARS-CoV-2.”

According to information from heart.org, people with obesity, regardless of age, are more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and have higher risks for complications and death.

In recent news from Penn State, at the end of 2020, more than 12% of Pennsylvania households were experiencing hunger, the highest rate since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Their report confirms anecdotal and media reports and highlights the role that community resources, such as food pantries and free school lunches, are playing in the state.

“We’ve seen the media accounts of exceptionally long lines at food banks and wanted to get a better understanding of the magnitude of the problem,” said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.

“Our synthesis suggests that while (Pennsylvania’s) rate of food insufficiency tends to be lower than the nation’s as a whole, it is still a significant and growing problem,” he said. “More than one in 10 households in Pennsylvania sometimes or often didn’t have enough food to eat last year, and food insufficiency status has grown worse for all but the wealthiest Pennsylvanians since the beginning of the pandemic.”

The pandemic disaster takes its toll in hardships that will be tough to overcome.

Please wear a mask, keep physical distancing and be careful to stay healthy, get your exercise and eat right. If not, getting through the pandemic won’t be any easier for you, or anybody.

— AA