A new study ties the COVID-19 pandemic to an “alarming” increase in obesity in U.S. children and teenagers. Childhood obesity has been increasing for decades, but the new work suggests an acceleration last year — especially in those who already were obese when the pandemic started. The results signal a “profound increase in weight gain for kids” and are “substantial and alarming,” said one of the study’s authors … An estimated 22% of children and teens were obese last August, up from 19% a year earlier.