Much rhetoric around obesity as a critical pre-existing condition for Covid-19.

A key lesson from H1N1 epidemic: meta analyses (n=25,189) showed an odds ratio of 1.8 for fatality amongst obese people. Until they controlled for one key variable

1/n

#HAES #fatphobia #medtwitter

Smaller bodied people *systematically* received earlier antiviral treatment than larger bodied people. Controlling for this difference eliminates impact of obesity on H1N1 fatality. Obesity kills, but the critical mediator is not biology, it's bias. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27385315/ 

H1N1 and coronavirus are not the same; but these results should encourage us to think critically about the current alarm bells. The concern should be directed inwardly, to providers, and outwardly, to an inequitable society.

The modifiable variable here is not peoples' sizes. It's provider behavior. That should be as empowering as it is troubling. We have a responsibility to reduce the harm of fat phobia, particularly in its racialized and gendered manifestations.

@cricketcrocker @LoveJenniK @haesstudentdoc @DrZackaryBerger

While you are here, read @aasewell's work on the illness associations of police violence. among them, a greatly increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension for Black women. https://twitter.com/aasewell/status/1288957211419475969

harm is redundant and synergistic.

my friends in clinic, before you pathologize the body of a person in need, think more broadly and deeply about the pathology that is our society.