Re:Covid learning loss has been a global disaster
by vharuck on Sunday July 10, 2022 @11:25AM
(#32045587)
As somebody who works in public health in the United States, I can guarantee that obesity is seen as an epidemic, tracked in the population with annual surveys, and targeted as a component of disease. Governmental and non-profit public health organizations spend lots of money and time fighting obesity. They'll never advertise programs as a way for somebody to stop being obese, because accusing your audience of a moral failing is just bad advertising.
Part of the problem is that humans are short-sighted, and humans of modern technological society have an even shorter attention span, hence it's not obvious that the actions of today lead to problems of tomorrow. It might seem inconsequential to be obese today, but problems of varying degree are almost inevitable down the road. Maybe it's cardiovascular disease, or wear on joints, or cancer, or sleep apnea, or diabetes, or whatever. These things aren't trivial, but humans are mentally adaptable and can get used to anything, whether it's enslavement or the disrepair of their own bodies.
It's been distressing to me when some individuals I know who have bought into fat-positivity have suggested that there's actually nothing wrong with being fat and that it's a "sliding-scale", as if obesity can only possibly be a bad thing at the point of immobility. In reality, any amount of obesity can be a sign of dysfunction. But to suggest this is now considered offensive by some, such to the point that the media won't touch it with a 10-foot pole and even many doctors have stopped taking the weight of their patients.
If people are going to play the "if it just saves one life" card when it comes to measures against COVID, then they'd better fucking stop living in a fantasy land and consider whether the lack of health of the population is causing excess early death.