«Я был слишком толстым». Премьер-министр Борис Джонсон сказал, что британцы должны похудеть, чтобы бороться с коронавирусом

U.Okay. Top Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged Monday that he used to be “method chubby” in April whenhe used to be hospitalized with COVID-19, as his authorities launched a campaign to lower the country’s obesity charges as segment of its pandemic response.

Citingstudy by England’s public successfully being physique, a British authoritiespolicy paper published Mondayacknowledged there is now “fixed proof” that folk that are chubby like a higher threat of being hospitalized, getting into intensive care, or death after contracting COVID-19 than those in weight ranges thought to be healthy.

Around two thirds of adults within the U.Okay. are chubby, and half of that personnel are in turn thought to be obese, the paper acknowledged. The U.Okay. has the area’s third-most practical likely death toll from COVID-19 with nearly 46,000 virus-connected deaths as of Monday.

Read extra:The Pandemic Is Turning People In opposition to the Gym. That Could perchance perchance Be a Simply Ingredient for the Nation’s Health

“When I went into ICU, as soon as I used to be very sick, I used to be very… I used to be method chubby,” Johnson acknowledged in a video posted to his real Twitter anecdote to delivery the campaign. “I’m handiest about 5 foot 10, at the [most], and, , I used to be too corpulent.” He added that he had started going for each day runs with his dogs since recuperating from COVID-19 and had lost at the very least 14 kilos.

The U.Okay. authorities acknowledged that reducing charges of obesity — which is additionally linked to coronary heart disease, diabetes, and most cancers — would support reduce the pressure on the country’s Nationwide Health Carrier (NHS) all the most practical likely contrivance thru the pandemic. If all Brits who are chubby lost 5 and a half kilos, the policy paper chanced on, it would possibly perchance perchance actually perchance attach the NHS $135 million by 2025.

Measures presented Monday consist of the growth of NHS “weight management” products and services, a ban on marketing junk food on TV and online forward of 9 p.m., likely restrictions on how unhealthy products are presented in grocery shops, and regulations to require intellectual restaurant corporations to protest calorie counts on their menus.

Johnson acknowledged the campaign would “support of us rather bit to elevate their weight down –– no longer in a very bossy or nannying method, I hope.”

Commentators within the U.Okay. likeexpressed surprisethat Johnson had championed a national weight reduction campaign. Sooner than becoming top minister, Johnson published a entire lot of columns arguing in opposition to successfully being-connected policies of outdated governments on the grounds that they intervened too noteworthy in of us’s non-public choices. While running for the management of the Conservative Event in July 2019, he criticized levies on sugary, salty and fatty meals as“sin taxes.”

Write toCiara Nugent atciara.nugent@time.com.