Philip McMillan, Consultant Geriatrician, has been running some very interesting lives with scientists on Linked In in which he questions some of the assumptions from which people have been working. Here, he considers links with obesity.
Like diabetes, COVID-19 seems to have a series of contradictions which ned to be answered. Type 1 diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin. All the complications such as retinopathy (eye), nephropathy (kidney), neuropathy (peripheral nerves) and cardiovascular complications all stem from the primary factor with insulin deficiency.
COVID-19 cannot be different in that it must have a primary pathology. We are unable to understand it because we are looking at complications rather than the primary cause.
Cardiac disease, obesity, diabetes and hypertension predominate in COVID-19 with very low relative risk of mortality in HIV cases.
If viral damage is the cause of these complications in COVID-19, why is immunosuppression not one of the highest comorbidities?
If the current approach is not yielding success, is it time to change the way of thinking?
Links: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dr-philip-anthony-mcmillan