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Officials in a Long Island, N.Y., town wants its some 200,000 residents to shed some pounds in an effort to stave off the novel coronavirus and reverse any quarantine-related weight gain, or the so-called “quarantine 15.”
Suffolk County Legislature Health Committee Chairman Dr. William Spencer, Town of Huntington Clerk Andrew Raia, as well as Dr. David Buchin, an obesity specialist and director of bariatric surgery at Huntington Hospital, announced the “Healthy Huntington” initiative during a news conference on Wednesday.
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Some 20,000 people live in Huntington.
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“I’m hoping that we start off with Huntington and it kind of spreads across the country because it’s a very serious thing,” Buchin, who is overseeing the program, said during the news conference. “COVID-19, you’re twice as likely to have a poor outcome if you’re obese. So it’s very important that we get fit and we get healthier.”
Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that underlying conditions commonly linked to