COVID vaccines prevented poor outcomes in people of all sizes

COVID-19 vaccination protected people of all body sizes from hospitalization and death—although vaccinated people with a low or high body mass index (BMI) were at greater risk, according to a study of adults in England published yesterday in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. University of Oxford researchers led the study, which involved 9,171,524 adult primary care patients in England with available body mass index (BMI) data from Dec 8, 2020 (when the COVID-19 vaccine first became available in the United Kingdom), to Nov 17, 2021. Average patient age was 52 years, and average BMI was 26.7 kilograms per meter squared (kg/m2) (overweight).