Vaccine and fat musings
12 Oct 2021 11:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerSaw a disgusting piece from CNN yesterday that talked to vaccine-stupids, and pretty much gave them a platform without any real rebuttal. That drives me nuts.
Two things:
1. At this point, I don't give a fuck if the stupids kill themselves or their families. I do, however, care that they put others at risk, who just happened to be near one of the stupids, and that they're breeding grounds for new variants.
2. These people almost invariably claim that 'they'll be fine' and then they get sick and go clog up hospitals putting others at risk. The stupids are often -not always- fat and older.
Which brings me to two other points I want to make.
1. While I despite these stupid, selfish asses, I'm of the opinion that we cannot, and should not agitate for, refusing them treatment, or should not use vaccine status as a determinant for treatment, no matter how tempting. Because I'm fat and I'll always be triaged to the back of the line, because it's my own fault (oh ha, as if I wouldn't be thin if I could, LOL. Do people really think fat people don't spend much of their lives desperately chasing thinness?), so since I don't want to see us going the route of using what would no doubt be called a 'personal choice' to be fat to deny me care, I will be on the side of not kicking the unvaccinated out of the hospital.
2. Fat people and Covid. Data looks pretty compelling, that fat people do poorly with Covid. That was what they said, what the studies showed as well, back in 2009 with H1N1, that fat people were particularly at risk. And then... someone did a meta-analysis a few years later and controlled for treatment... and lo and behold, the problem was medical bias: thin people got treatment earlier and fat people got lower quality of care in general. It'll be interesting to see if the small increase in morbidity and mortality in fat people in Covid get smoothed away once we account for how soon fat people got antibody treatment, how often/for how long they were proned etc.
Which brings me to two more points.
1. Approximately 74% of Americans are some degree of fat. 78% of people who have poor outcomes with covid (hospitalization, need of a ventilator, death) were fat. Excuse me while I don't think that the 4% difference is worth blaming every fat person for their own demise over, especially considering point 2 above. The data, btw, is often mis-reported as "78% of people with poor outcomes were considered overweight or obese" followed by '42% of Americans are obese.' Note the difference.... I also find it interesting that the data out of China (30% fat people) did not show an additional risk factor, nor did the initial data from NY or, even, King County. Again, not saying there is no effect of being fat, just that the data is, again, being blown out of proportion, and that it'll be interesting to see over the next few years, if anyone tries to tease out the balance between actual risk and the risk conferred by medical bias.
2. Fat lives are considered worthless. It's been horrific, over the past year and a half, to hear the chant, mainly from wingnuts, but also from the left, of 'well, they were fat, lol, what did they expect?' The immediate reaction after a death is announced was to explain it away "oh, they were fat" or to, in no uncertain terms, blame the victim, or worse, parents who lost a child.
Two things:
1. At this point, I don't give a fuck if the stupids kill themselves or their families. I do, however, care that they put others at risk, who just happened to be near one of the stupids, and that they're breeding grounds for new variants.
2. These people almost invariably claim that 'they'll be fine' and then they get sick and go clog up hospitals putting others at risk. The stupids are often -not always- fat and older.
Which brings me to two other points I want to make.
1. While I despite these stupid, selfish asses, I'm of the opinion that we cannot, and should not agitate for, refusing them treatment, or should not use vaccine status as a determinant for treatment, no matter how tempting. Because I'm fat and I'll always be triaged to the back of the line, because it's my own fault (oh ha, as if I wouldn't be thin if I could, LOL. Do people really think fat people don't spend much of their lives desperately chasing thinness?), so since I don't want to see us going the route of using what would no doubt be called a 'personal choice' to be fat to deny me care, I will be on the side of not kicking the unvaccinated out of the hospital.
2. Fat people and Covid. Data looks pretty compelling, that fat people do poorly with Covid. That was what they said, what the studies showed as well, back in 2009 with H1N1, that fat people were particularly at risk. And then... someone did a meta-analysis a few years later and controlled for treatment... and lo and behold, the problem was medical bias: thin people got treatment earlier and fat people got lower quality of care in general. It'll be interesting to see if the small increase in morbidity and mortality in fat people in Covid get smoothed away once we account for how soon fat people got antibody treatment, how often/for how long they were proned etc.
Which brings me to two more points.
1. Approximately 74% of Americans are some degree of fat. 78% of people who have poor outcomes with covid (hospitalization, need of a ventilator, death) were fat. Excuse me while I don't think that the 4% difference is worth blaming every fat person for their own demise over, especially considering point 2 above. The data, btw, is often mis-reported as "78% of people with poor outcomes were considered overweight or obese" followed by '42% of Americans are obese.' Note the difference.... I also find it interesting that the data out of China (30% fat people) did not show an additional risk factor, nor did the initial data from NY or, even, King County. Again, not saying there is no effect of being fat, just that the data is, again, being blown out of proportion, and that it'll be interesting to see over the next few years, if anyone tries to tease out the balance between actual risk and the risk conferred by medical bias.
2. Fat lives are considered worthless. It's been horrific, over the past year and a half, to hear the chant, mainly from wingnuts, but also from the left, of 'well, they were fat, lol, what did they expect?' The immediate reaction after a death is announced was to explain it away "oh, they were fat" or to, in no uncertain terms, blame the victim, or worse, parents who lost a child.
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