A GP has emailed Lockdown Sceptics with a short piece about obesity, which she calls the elephant in the room. Given its links to susceptibility to COVID-19, we have to start talking about it.
Forgive me if this offends you. For the past 16 months we have an elephant in the (COVID-19) room that we seem to refuse to talk about. As a clinician working in a very large London GP practice, I’ve been wondering if and when patients might spot the elephant and take some action. It hasn’t happened yet.
So what is the elephant you ask? It’s the undeniable fact that a healthy weight and lifestyle which includes regular exercise will (almost definitely) reduce your risk of dying with an infection such as Covid by an enormous amount. To name it and shame it, the elephant’s name is specifically obesity. Yes there are genetics, yes there is age, yes there are the random unlucky ones. But for the vast majority who become seriously ill with COVID-19, obesity is a significant contributory factor. The vast majority of patients who end up in ITU with Covid have a BMI of >25 and it often does’t end well for them.
Now you might think that’s not relevant to you as you have checked out the infection fatality risk in your age group (and hopefully the Covid ship has sailed anyway…) and you know it’s ridiculously low. However, is that really a good excuse? So you might get Covid and not die (I certainly hope you don’t), but what about the increased risks of developing diabetes, cancer, heart disease, strokes, infertility, difficult labours, long Covid (the list goes on and on)?
So, I’ve spent 16 months talking to my patients about this. (Contrary to public perception we have been doing something!) Have they listened? Well, yes, I would say most of them hear me out. However, what has struck me is that a few of them (a generally well educated, affluent bunch) were genuinely surprised by what they heard. They had no idea there was such a strong correlation between obesity and increased risk of dying or being very unwell with Covid. But sadly in the majority of cases I fear I’ve wasted my breath.
So, who’s to blame? SAGE wouldn’t deny it, Boris has mentioned it, the BBC have whispered about it… But the mystery remains as to WHY WE AREN’T SHOUTING ABOUT THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS?!? Is it because the media and the rest of the band wagon are afraid of fat shaming? Or would a massive increase in health promotion distract from all the fear mongering and vaccine obsession? Boris has the perfect platform to mention this every time he does one of his irritating lectures to the nation.
I’m not writing this piece to rant. I’m writing it because maybe this is the forum to speak out and start to create a change that will not only reduce people’s risk of dying from diseases like Covid, but, more importantly, will reduce the risk of them getting innumerable diseases. Maybe what is needed is to separate statement of fact (obesity carries significant health risk) from subjective judgement (it’s your fault you’re obese). If we remove the subjective element, then perhaps we’d be able to talk about it in a more objective and calm way? It would allow us to state plainly the health risks, and (more importantly) facilitate weight loss for those who want to attempt it. It is very sensitive subject and until we stop worrying about causing offence we won’t be able to have a proper grown up discussion.
Update: Gary Johnson, the Managing Director of Inpharmation, has emailed us to correct the impression, given by the author of this piece, that obesity is a more important risk factor than age when it comes to susceptibility to COVID-19.
I know from reading your site regularly that you will be well aware that the risk of increasing age spans several order of magnitude. Whereas the risks from obesity are a fraction of an order of magnitude.
The best data I know of for the demographics and outcomes for patients on critical care is the INARC report on COVID-19 in critical care.
While it is true that around four fifths of the COVID critical care population have a BMI of over 25, this misleads. Firstly, the cut off for obesity is 30 and not 25. Secondly, as we age, we put on weight and the average age for critical care COVID patients is around 60. So we need to compare the critical care COVID population with the sex and age matched general population. You can see this on page 65 of the INARC report. The COVID critical care population is a just a little more overweight/obese than the general population. In earlier INARC reports, the proportions have actually been quite similar.
And, while it is true that it often does not end well for overweight COVID patients on ITU, it is no more true for them than for other COVID patients who end up on ITU. On page 65 of the report you will see that, surprisingly, a lower percentage of obese patients in critical care die (34.6%) than of non-obese patients. The worst outcome is for those patients with a BMI of <25, with 42.2% of those in critical care dying.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating obesity – just fact checking.
Keep up the great work.
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A friend of mine, total bedwetter, just visited. Told me his Dad had died last Aug following a coughing fit brought on by a PCR test!
CDC creating secret national database of households with unvaccinated children… hear the recording… plan to medically KIDNAP all unvaxxed kids?
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-08-13-cdc-creating-secret-national-database-of-households-with-unvaccinated-children.html
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At least it wasnt Covid though another life saved almost
To all complicit in this:
You Evil, Evil, Fuckin Bastards.
Put O’Leary on the criminals list.
God Almighty.
Comments very unsympathetic – top rated include “You made the choice to take your child, with numerous mental health issues abroad during a pandemic. The fact that your child is having a meltdown, whilst staff try to do the job they have been ordered to do by the government, is entirely your doing.”
“So sorry for the little man but, what if he was carrying the virus, everyone on the flight would be at risk, The rules are quite clear, if the parents didn’t want him testing then they shouldn’t take him away. It’s the same with the mask wearing, if a store says your wear a mask then that’s the rule if you cannot for any reason …tough get someone to do your shopping.”
“So now you are telling me some people can get an exemption to covid tests. I’m sorry that’s not acceptable. Nobody likes the test, and yes it’s distressing for everyone. If he is unable to take the test then he shouldn’t be doing anything that requires it. I guess he also isn’t wearing a mask and isn’t vaccinated. What about the health of the other passengers Maybe we should all ask for covid test exemptions.”
Still the mentality that if anyone on a plane tests positive then everyone else WILL get infected and most likely die .
and the bed-wetting fucktards never stop to consider that he and anyone else they come into contact with might actually have something that really will kill them.
During a ‘pandemic’ they say. What is a pandemic? 1000 cases? If it is Prison Island downunder, apparently just ‘one’ case is a pandemic.
Just following orders they say! Just a little swab. Just another month. Just a qurantine camp. Just a train journey..
God, but.some people are vile.
Yes, nasty little authoritarian types.
Bollocks!
So what if he was carrying ‘the virus’? Its a 99.98% recovery. The ‘tests’ are NOT fit for purpose and he has more chance of getting bacterial pneumonia from wearing a filthy muzzle over his mouth.
Cancer tumours grow from breathing in your own carbon dioxide as they are anaerobic and thrive is moist mouldy conditions…
I will continue to shop without a mask, I will never be jabbed with an untested gene therapy and no one will ever shove a toxic stick into my brain…searching for….? Oh a brain!
I am slim, with no medical issues and enjoy robust good health.
Continue testing for an unidentified virus and while you’re at it…check the grave yard to see if you are still alive…!
I am shocked by people’s lack of basic health intelligence.
The big problem is that what people are told is healthy isn’t, and vice versa. Grains and “vegetable” oil good, meat and fat bad. Not working too well is it?
Do you just appear on here to wind people up.Actually think how bad this has REALLY been in the last 12 months .No one i know has had covid beyond a few people i work with who would have a bad cold 2 years ago (remember those).This is a sceptical forum really so run along !!
Sorry but what has everybody who ever might have caught a bug or virus since 19fucking 60 done about it .They have lived with it and not become obsessed with infecting ar being infected with the most hyped illness ever .Its a fucking pretend virus that our pretend government have had to market like nothing ever before because its so fucking shaky .What was the point of making this boy have a test .We are not here tp protect the other half of the world from catching a cold Jesus what has happened to people MORONS .People are definetely dying of cancer,anuerisms ,renal failiure,heart failiure they are not definetely dying of this knocked up phoney make it up as you go along virus unless you can put within 28 days of a positive test on the death certificate of someone who died horribly of pancreatic cancer This is over becasue its time for it to be over .It has been an experiment in finding out how piss weak the resolve of the British people has been But that kid should stop whining though right ????
You nasty minded little bastard.
In the current frenzied climate caused by our massively corrupted governments, why on earth do adults put children through this sort of nonsense, simply for a holiday on the Costa del Plonkers? Totally insanity.
A small number of airlines have long deserved to go out of business, but the rumour is that they keep going on money coming from some very peculiar sources, which is presumably in return for the equally dubious services that they provide.
This situation is bringing out the very worst in the authoritarians.
That’s what totalitarianism does: finds the very worst people, brings out the very worst in them, and puts them in authority over you. From the little Hitler at the supermarket entrance, all the way down to the big bag of Hitlerian blubber in Number 10.
There are no exemptions in Spain. No exemption for not wearing a facemask either.
Doctors cannot write them, so the whole country is ………
Thank God for Nelson and Wellington…
Franco lives?
I doubt even this sort of thing will get society to snap out of its current psychosis.
In our society’s eyes covid is so dangerous that even the torture of children is justified.
Psychosis, plain and simple.
Diabolical psychosis.
The New Civilisation, with stupidity, dishonesty, greed and cruelty the defining characteristics.
Wunderbar!
Didn’t they try a similar thing in the ancient civilisation of Sodom and Gomorrah?
This was cruel and despicable of the airline. But it is happening globally in different settings now more and more. I can see a grim near future for the unvaccinated and all dissenters. But we have to stick together and risk persecution for freedom and the truth.
My suggestion, start buying boats. Even if the bay of biscay between England and Spain can be nasty one could always shadow the French coast then cut across the channcel where it is narrow. We can give the whole idiotic system of borders the contempt they deserve. No more customs, no more security rubbish, no more queuing!
The staff who assaulted him need to loose their jobs, and the scum who ever decided that these invasive tests should be forced at borders need jail sentences.
that ‘s what i w as thinking , boats ! learn to sail . i agree with everything you wrote here.
been quite an education the past 18 months, how large portions of a society showered in fear can completely lose their moral compass. It’s not over by a long shot either. I’m waiting for the strong men to appear, the politicians and media pundits ready to draw these monsters to their cause. History doesn’t repeat…..
Can’t bring myself to watch the video… Fuck them forever
Mengele lives. What more to say?
Even the exemptions are not exempt. We have to redefine the word exemtion.
Honestly though, if they’re not exempt from a test, how long before no one is exempt from vaccinations? I really hope it wouldn’t come to this point.
Its just the “keep testing keep publishing cases morinic mantra that the British public have come to love and trust
“The health and safety of our passengers and crew prioritised”.
Ah, so they will ensure their pilots don’t have the Covid “vaccines”, which cause dangerous side effects.
Anything being rammed up the nose is more of a danger to safety and health than even a symptomatic covid carrier is now that all the vulnerable are vaxxed, and for the most part was more dangerous than covid before we had vaccines too.
well he was a passenger wasnt he ???
This is bloody shameful. all that stress and trauma inflicted on that child for a meaningless test. Its a total disgrace.
CDC creating secret national database of households with unvaccinated children… hear the recording… plan to medically KIDNAP all unvaxxed kids?
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-08-13-cdc-creating-secret-national-database-of-households-with-unvaccinated-children.html
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Sad story. We should be full of sympathy for this poor kid.
What a wonderful opportunity to do a bit of Paddy bashing of the English media’s favourite whipping boy – Micheal O’Leary. You know the modern day Freddie Laker who brough cheap air travel to us disgusting unwashed.
Would not a better headline be Boris Corby and his Spanish counterpart be
“British and Spanish Government’s apologise for stupid rules imposed on autistic child”
No didn’t think so.
Are all those bedwetting Lockdown Extremists who are responsible for this state of affairs proud of themselves, I wonder?
I am sure they are. They invoke Covid as their moral permission to do what they know to be immoral. They have convinced themselves that their cause is noble. It’s the same psychology that gave saintly people moral permission to persecute “witches” and inflict terrible pain and death.
It is remarkable how many people know so much of this is wrong but have slipped into a moral justification so easily because its governmet endorsed, as if they will get some sort of reward for being stupid and horrible . They will want the same things as the rest of us eventuaully then they will turn like vipers on the very government they are cheerleading.
YES
Isn’t it great what our leaders have reduced us to? How proud we should all be of ourselves whats a bit of child abuse and pain as long as the Government is happy in the knowledge that there isn’t anything we wouldn’t do at their request in the name of the great God Covid.
Its because of Covid (copy and paste)
Revolting as this is, let’s not be diverted by blaming the parents, the airline or the useful idiots doing the tests. This is an inevitable consequence of the hysterical policies of governments determined to create conflict. The only way to avoid it is never to leave home for anything.
Surely this shows what an intrusive test this is. There has been talk all through of a potential saliva test or similar and nothing has appeared. Yet people are having these intrusive stick up nose and choking at back of mouth things in the millions without a murmur. I have never performed it myself and have no wish to (having a divided septum it would not be without its risks) but I can imagine what an awful experience it is for anybody, dyslexic or not.
despicable ! the poor kid !
my thought was could the parents refuse to fly hire a boat instead but is hard to think of alternative s on the spot we need to be prepared ,absolutely despicable what the airline did, he had an exemption we all must refuse . the ‘ tests’ are an invasion
the poor kid ! and the parents were so good to get him away for a break
Well, ordinarily I’d be appalled at Ryanair, but in this case…..
The parents chose to fly on holiday (non essential travel), and had a covid test on the way out, including the child.
The parents new the rules and knew he’d also be required to do another test on the way home. So why would anybody take notice of a doctor’s letter if it was not valid for the outbound journey?
The PARENTS filmed and then POSTED the video on social media.
Appalling, showboating behaviour!!
Can i just say in reflection to no one in particular but as a result of events im my home town of Plymouth in the last few days that how pathetic the zeal that these pointless rules are being followed and enforced .After six deaths from the same shotgun belonging to a young man who had struggled to get access to mental help because of Covid (there we go again)its time to acquire some perspective on whats happening in the world /country/town /street etc>The local police force also returned the shotgun to him roughly at the same time as they were patroling Central Park(the Plymouth one) to check on the validity and distance of people excercising.This is not a direct criticicm of them but something very serious has gone wrong which may well remain with us long after we put our Lemsip away
That doesnt cancel this attrocious episode though does it are you on the wrong site ??
If people do not start fighting for themselves and their children this kind of ridiculous thing will continue. Please just start by saying enough is enough. When things do not make sense, you must start asking questions.
Alfred North Whitehead:
I have to question the parents in this because not only did they allow their son to suffer this trauma in Valencia they allowed it to happen in Britain to get to Valencia. What kid of parent does that? I know I would have flat refused and in Britain I’d have been straight onto my MP and the press. In Valencia the British Embassy, Reuters and British press. I’d also be plastering the story via family at home all across social media. Under no circumstances would they have been allowed to test my child.