Today, the White House shared that American President Joe Biden has become infected with Covid-19. Biden is reportedly experiencing mild symptoms at the moment, including a cough and runny nose.
When any world leader is infected with an illness, though, it raises concerns about their future ability to govern. Specifically, what does Joe Biden's Covid-19 infection mean for his own risk of a severe disease course?
To answer that question, we can turn to two different sources. Firstly, we can examine the White House's report from Biden's 2021 medical examination. This was made public and provides a great deal of information about the President's health.
From it, we learn that Biden is 5 feet, 11.65 inches tall and weighs 184 pounds. That gives him a BMI of 25, which places him right at the borderline of normal and overweight status. That's important because obesity is a risk factor for serious Covid-19 outcomes.
We also know that Biden is vaccinated, and has received his boosters for Covid-19. That alone is likely to make a big difference in his outcome because vaccination status is a big factor in determining who has more extreme Covid-19 outcomes.
We also know, though, that the President is advanced in age, at 79 years old. Age is one of the largest factors in determining the probability of a serious outcome from any disease, Covid-19 included.
Plugging these numbers into a chart provided by the CDC, we can see that Biden's risk for a serious Covid-19 outcome is as much as 140 times higher than the risk for a healthy 18-29-year-old, which is the category with the lowest overall risk.
Again, Biden's age is the biggest factor determining his risk. His relatively good health and his vaccine status should be positive factors in lowering his overall risk.
Hopefully, Biden fully recovers from the virus and continues to experience only mild symptoms.
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