Those of us who are fortunate and privileged, and even those who are just getting by, must be aware of how many Americans are operating at bare survival level.

Today’s topic is the intersections between obesity, poverty, race, and coronavirus.

Despite loose talk of an impending “second wave,” it is clear that the country is still in the midst of the first wave. Sheer desperate denial does nothing.

People pass COVID-19 on to others before they even know they have it themselves, and sometimes they never know, because they never feel sick.

Coronavirus seems determined to defy any attempts at pattern recognition that could help defeat it, and experts have used the word “bizarre” to describe it.

Some kids might have no symptoms of coronavirus at all, and function as extremely efficient little superspreaders.

Some experts believe that 80% of the COVID-19 cases are instigated by 20% (or maybe even just 10%) of infectious individuals, who are known as “superspreaders.”

What is MIS-C/PMIS? Is it just part of a very bad case of COVID-19, or a separate yet related entity that sets in after the acute viral stage is over?

Obesity exacerbates coronavirus, and at the same time, the virus worsens the obesity. That’s bad enough, but the immune system also goes into overdrive.

Despite all the current research, we face the sad truth: Relative to how much there is to know about COVID-19, very little is known.

Impacted by food shortages and isolation, some people who suffer from eating disorders are adopting new displacement behaviors as vessels for their anxiety.

In the course of struggling with food issues during the pandemic, someone who never before experienced an alcohol or drug problem could develop one.

Displacement activity occurs in many forms, of which eating is one. But what happens when there just isn’t any food?

No two people have quite the same eating disorder. There are a thousand ways to suffer, and a thousand ways to cope — most of them detrimental.

For someone struggling with substance abuse isolation and boredom are very hazardous conditions, and recovery could be a matter of life or death.

It is a truism that a person can tolerate just about anything, if they know how long it will last. With COVID-19, we just don’t know the end point.

Because the problem is new and ongoing, most coronavirus studies are very small and necessarily inconclusive.

COVID-19 is many things, but finished is not one of them. And nobody seems to really have a handle on keeping the numbers current and complete, so they differ.

To call these times uncertain is to put it very mildly. An yet, many states and cities are boldly plunging into what they hope will resemble normalization.

When relative isolation is combined with food insecurity or an eating disorder, things can really go haywire.

With the world swamped by a disease whose details are not yet fully understood, the circumstances are tailor-made to foster orthorexia.

The Navajo Nation is one of the top coronavirus hotspots in the country, dealing with the devastating effects with limited access to running water.

Global water shortages prevent people from following handwashing recommendations, making them more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus.

Around 780 million people in the world don’t have access to clean water, and water shortage is a way of life. How does it affect dealing with COVID-19 globally?

The COVID-19 risk factors seem to vary from one country to another, but in most places, the most significant risk factor seems to be excessive body weight.

There is more to be said about the conjunction of obesity, inflammation, and the virus. For instance, why does it prefer to afflict obese people?

The obese are at higher risk for severe illness, and obese young people are at particular risk. So who is disproportionately at risk of dying from the virus?

As the way we buy food keeps changing along with availability of certain types of food, how will the pandemic ultimately affect the way we eat?

When food is available but the future is unclear binge eating and overeating are the maladaptations to watch out for.

Four journalists collaborated on this story from different parts of the globe, and the reports are confusing: Many developing nations with hot climates and young populations have escaped the worst… Many countries that have escaped mass epidemics have …