Does 'obesity' increase risk of severe covid?

Headlines are ramping up the rhetoric that being ‘overweight’/’obese’ puts you at ‘much higher risk’ of severe COVID-19 symptoms. 

I don’t blame you if this has made you suspicious of my ‘fat isn’t unhealthy’ chat, as much of the misinformation around the need to ‘tackle obesity’ in relation to Covid-19, has been pretty persuasive. Persuasive, yes. Compelling, yes. But this does not mean it is therefore factually correct. So, with ridiculous policy ideas such as calories on menus (what the fuck) flying around, I want to actually break down of some of the misleading rhetoric.As you may or may not have seen, pretty much every news outlet is screaming about the fact that Public Health England have done a study that shows ‘obesity’ to increase the likelihood of death from Covid by 90%.

Let us take a look at the nitty gritty of this. A recent Guardian article bears the headline ‘Public Health England (PHE) call for action on obesity in COVID-19 fight’. However, in the very same article, it states, “PHE said the link is ‘currently unclear’ and the data does not suggest that having excess weight increases people’s chances of contracting COVID-19.”...Interesting.

The same article continues, “the report stresses that there is no direct research into the effects of weight loss on COVID-19 risks”. Yet, the latest government action is to ‘slim down the nation’ and ‘get BMIs down’ in the name of fighting coronavirus? 

Aside from the questionable research, I don’t think the government realises the impact these policies are going to have on the nation’s mental health. Not only is it validating and perpetuating the eating disorder and diet mentality, but the policies seriously run the risk of pushing previously healthy people, into damaging and obsessive behaviours. Calorie counting, for example, is a CLASSIC disordered behaviour, and ‘rapid weight-loss’ (what the government have stated as their ideal outcome) won’t do ANY good to our immune systems, it will in fact make them less effective. (3)

I’m not here to try and tell you all that physical movement and a balanced diet (a genuinely balanced - not with any bullshit restriction) aren’t important or beneficial for one’s health: they are, but weight loss is not. People who are sedentary and eat McDonalds everyday will obviously benefit from engaging in more physical activity and eating a wider range of foods, but what needs to be understood, is that changing these behaviours does not have to result in weight loss in order for it to better your health. Weight means very little when it comes to health, and weight-loss itself isn’t going to do jack-shit to the nation.

As well as the PHE report, a report published by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (UK), compared a graph of the country’s BMI distribution, with the BMI data collected from patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. They found that whilst there was a larger proportion of overweight or obese patients admitted, the proportions were in line with the numbers of overweight and obese people in the general population. This shows means that COVID-19 does not disproportionally those who are overweight or obese, in fact the report literally shows the opposite: that the virus effects the general population evenly. (4) Yet still, these figures are being heralded by news rooms as damning evidence to justify the imminent ‘War on obesity’ that our government intends to declare.

In China, extensive research has been carried out into the risk factors of COVID-19, and despite over a third of the Chinese population falling into the ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ BMI categories, they have found little to no evidence that high weight has any relation to the severity of the virus.

We also need to remember that fat phobia is entrenched within the healthcare system, and the research does not this bias into account…An example of how ignoring this bias in research can majorly skew results, is the swine flu ‘obesity’ scare. When swine flu was all the rage, everyone was certainthat being ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ put you at greater risk of severe symptoms, and the research at the time supported these claims too…until the data was reviewed in 2016...Having reviewed the data, analysts found that the smaller-bodied swine flu patients were far more likely to be given early anti-viral treatment. Of course more larger bodied people were becoming seriously ill - THEY WEREN’T GIVEN TREATMENT SOON ENOUGH.

As you can tell, I am angry. I am very angry. 

What boils my blood most above all else, is that the Public Health England research doesn’t take socioeconomic status into account - despite its intrinsic link with ‘obesity’ rates.‘The Economics of Food Choice Behaviour: Why Poverty and Obesity Are Linked’, an report on factors affecting the BMIs of populations, states, “[Obesity] is more prevalent in deprived neighbourhoods and among groups with lower education and incomes”, it also revealed that both the value of one’s property, and whether one shops in low-cost supermarkets or not, are pretty reliable predictors of weight. Living in a low income household, not only increases ones likelihood of a higher BMI, but is also a highly significant risk factor for contracting severe strains of COVID-19. Funny that…You are more likely to have a job that doesn’t enable you to work from home, more likely to live in a multi-generational household, more likely to live in cramped conditions and less likely to live close to a hospital.

Having the time and money to cook homemade meals from fresh food is a privilege. Having the time and money to join a dance class, or a gym, or a yoga studio is a privilege. For the poorest 10% in the UK, following the NHS “eat well” food guidelines would take up 75% of their income (7). How can the government insist upon everyone following their version of ‘healthy eating’, when they are responsible for creating a society that can’t afford it?Fat just isn’t the issue, weight stigma and poverty are the real obstacles to tackle.

Unfortunately, this leave us in a dilemma: we have a Tory government driven by profit, leaving the poorest in society to suffer, and the wealthy money-makers (such as the £269.2 billion diet industry) to thrive. On top of this, they have dealt with the pandemic with shocking incoherence. So, how do they wiggle out of this predicament? Well, why not kill two birds with one stone? Shift the blame onto the individual, by scapegoating those deemed to be 'obese'. Say that it is obesity increasing rates of severe covid, it’s the fat peoples' own fault if they fall ill, never mind all the odds against them! This way, the government get away with ignoring the structural inequality that infests the UK. No extra cash spent on the poor, and less attention on their mistakes. Perfect.

Speaking of structural inequality, it is not only fat bias that is being ignored, but racial bias too. As of today, the government are finally funding research to look into why black and ethnic minority groups are twice as likely to die from COVID-19. As government surveys show that black households, out of all ethnicities within the UK, are the most likely to have a weekly income of less than £400 (8), I will be interested to see if disproportionate poverty within the black community is raised as a risk factor…

To sum up my rambling: please don’t take everything you read as fact, because a lot of it is extremely flawed and extremely biased.

Being fat does not inherently make you unhealthy, nor does obesity inherently increase your risk of severe covid.

What is unhealthy is getting the nation calorie counting and promoting a disordered relationship with food and exercise, when eating disorder numbers are rampant. What is unhealthy is telling larger bodied people to lose weight rather than investing in and giving them the medicine they really need.