Thirty-year failure to tackle preventable disease fuelling global Covid pandemic

Study reveals increase in high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and obesity, all risk factors for disease

The failure of governments to tackle a three-decade rise in preventable diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes has fuelled the Covid-19 pandemic and is stalling life expectancy around the world, a comprehensive study has found.

The latest data from the Global Burden of Disease study, published in the Lancet medical journal, is from 2019, before Covid, but helps explain the world's vulnerability to the virus.