News outlets need to STOP reporting that body size is an independent risk factor for COVID-19. To date, evidence indicates that the percentage of high-BMI folks with critical COVID cases is basically the same as—if not LOWER than—the percentage in the general population.

I won’t link to these reports bc they’re stigmatizing AF, but you know the ones: the NY Post quoting a UK tabloid about how ~2/3 of UK ICU pts are in the “O” BMI categories, Reuters talking about why NOLA has it worse than other cities bc people there are fatter, etc.

But here’s the thing: ~2/3 of the *general population* in the UK (and US) falls in the “O” BMI categories. The percentage of larger-bodied folks in critical care just mirrors that of the general population. (h/t Dr. Joshua Wolrich for sharing this report: https://www.icnarc.org/About/Latest-News/2020/03/27/Report-On-775-Patients-Critically-Ill-With-Covid-19)

And Reuters reports that 25% of the people who’ve died of COVID in Louisiana were in the “o*ese” BMI category, but doesn’t bother to mention that 34.5% of the state’s overall population falls into that category, according to the Louisiana Dept of Health.

So if anything, those numbers indicate that being in the “o*ese” category may actually *lower* people’s risk. (To hear me talk more about this, check out this week’s episode of @plusthisshow, https://m.facebook.com/PlusThisShow/videos/225440445369040/)

Obviously it’s early, & there’s more we may learn about risk factors once more real science starts getting published—but we do have a bunch of real science out of China already, & high BMI on its own just isn’t a risk factor (though it may be when combined with heart disease).

And by the way, any COVID-CVD-BMI link doesn’t mean higher weight *causes* poor outcomes in COVID-19 among CVD patients; it may just mean higher-weight ppl are sicker to begin with bc of #weightstigma and #weightcycling, both of which are independent heart risk factors.

(That link was found in ONE study btw.)

But to date, there’s no convincing evidence to suggest that high weight is a risk factor in and of itself, and *certainly* none to even hint that losing weight is a form of prevention or cure.

Do a Pubmed search for "COVID-19" + “obesity,” read the full-text studies and references closely, and see for yourself. Or read the ones I’ve collected here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wlmrpz7apt8l8jk/AACUuZqP3f3JsHRSsmba0gYua?dl=0

We just have larger-bodied people getting critically ill at the same or lower rates than we’d expect given the distribution of body sizes in the population, and fatphobic journalists and health professionals trying to spin a story about how being fat is bad.

Bottom line: don’t buy it. This is just #dietculture trying to make fatphobic meaning out of nothing. Right now the best thing you can do—at ANY size—is stay home, wash your hands, and try not to fall prey to weight stigma