Diabetes and Covid-19

I read a study the other day that showed that two out of every five Americans who die from covid-19 are diabetic. It makes diabetes one of the highest risk conditions in the pandemic. It’s sobering that while only 10% of the US population suffers from diabetes, 40% of covid-death cases are connected with the disease. The study, conducted by scientists at the University of Texas at El Paso, also found that one in ten people with diabetes hospitalized with covid-19 die within a week. Those numbers are pretty grim.

You can ask yourself if diabetes in itself is a risk factor or if the problem relates to poor management. I don’t see why a diabetic with normal blood sugar should be at higher risk of death than anyone else. The problem is that once you get sick, blood sugars get harder to control.

To make matters worse, many diabetics in the United States are struggling with making ends meet. Nearly one in five diabetics said they had to choose between buying food or diabetes medications and supplies during the pandemic. The problem is not getting any better. In the pandemic, we’ve witnessed the largest wealth transfer in modern times, where millions of Americans have been thrown into poverty. These are the people who will struggle with getting access to health care and the medications you need to survive as a diabetic. And there are sure to be plenty of people with diabetes among America’s poor. Even though the pubs are once again open for business, we have far from seen the end of covid-19.