Figure 1.

Clinical progression of COVID‐19. SARS‐CoV‐2 infection progresses through stages starting with Stage 1, which includes initial asymptomatic or mild symptoms associated with active viral replication. Some individuals progress to Stage 2, which includes increased pulmonary involvement with symptoms of dyspnea and hypoxemia and opacities observed with chest imaging that often must be managed with hospitalization. A subset of individuals in Stage 2 progress to more severe disease, Stage 3, which is associated with respiratory failure, elevated markers of systemic inflammation, and multisystem organ failure. Relative to normal‐weight individuals (indicated by the black line), people with obesity (indicated by the red line) have a higher risk for progressing to Stage 2 and 3 and have more severe disease at each stage. ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome; COVID‐19, coronavirus disease 2019; ICU, intensive care unit; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.