Swine flu and obesity

Well now this will be interesting - apparently swine flu affects obese people more severely. According to an article on Bloomberg (via Slashdot), "obesity stands out as a statistically significant factor involved in the seriousness of the disease". Given our fear of fat, this could lead to some very strange reporting - gleeful and self righteous. While I'm not ready to believe our high fructose corn syrup overlords that there's no problem (especially with our food!), I think we've allowed some curious attitudes and beliefs to shape our treatment of the question of who is 'fat'. And this news could pull it all out into the open.

holly commented:

It is interesting, because they seem so sure when no formal studies have been done. It could be as simple as people in better physical health (who exercise regularly and eat healthier) have better lung function and less associated diseases. You are right, this could get wild.

on Mon Jul 13 09:36:19 2009
David Hibbard commented:

Seems to me that it could have more to do with how weak a person's immune system is. Maybe obese people have weaker immune systems because of other ailments that accompany obesity such as high blood pressure.

on Mon Jul 13 11:42:13 2009

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