COVID and the moral panic over obesity.

Wow, this is complete garbage. This is the real danger of smart people: they can lie to you so well that the average person cannot detect the deception.

This chucklefuck doesn’t really understand what the numbers they are citing mean nor what the statistical practices behind them are attempting to suss out. Combining cohorts in an unusual way? Check. Not understanding the difference between absolute risk and relative risk? Check. Not understanding that the “normal” weight group includes a lot of people who have dangerously and rapidly lost weight due to illness? Check.

This better portrays the reality of the situation.

Among 148,494 adults who received a COVID-19 diagnosis during an emergency department (ED) or inpatient visit at 238 U.S. hospitals during March–December 2020, 28.3% had overweight and 50.8% had obesity. Overweight and obesity were risk factors for invasive mechanical ventilation, and obesity was a risk factor for hospitalization and death, particularly among adults aged

What bothers me the most when people like this lie about obesity and its risks, they think they are helping their fellow fat people. But what they’re really doing is making it less likely they’ll be cared for correctly, less likely that real risks will be recognized and dealt with and worst of all, that children will be inflicted with obesity and have lifelong problems due to this severe abuse.

A better way to read this study than what this idiot clown does: Covid is not very high-risk if you are under 65 and normal-ish BMI, and a bit riskier if you are fat. But if you are over 65 and fat, the IFR goes way, way up.

That doesn’t mean obesity is great for Covid outcomes when you’re younger — it’s just that other risk factors swamp that one in the case of this disease.

Why, why, are so people invested in “proving” that being enormous is a-ok? Even if you don’t understand statistics and can’t read very well, at least have some fucking dignity and epistemological self-respect.