Obese people to get the vaccine before healthy 50 year olds.

[Sb2012]

Just something that came through in a newsfeed. Don’t know how accurate. Headline said “ Obese people to get the vaccine before healthy 50 year olds.”
What are your thoughts on this? I’m not sure how I feel tbh. I guess it’s proven that obese people are at a higher risk.
However, what about the under 50 healthy BMI teachers, supermarket workers etc I don’t think it is fair to prioritise an obese 40 year old who works from home or doesn’t work at all over a normal BMI 40 year old teacher, supermarket worker or taxi driver

Just when you think the human race can't sink any lower this thread happens.

I've been fat, I've been thin and I've now settled somewhere in the middle. At no point did I think "fuck it I'm going to eat loads and get fat". It's not a fucking choice.

1 in 4 adults are classed as obese in the UK. People are living in an increasingly obesogenic environment. Many working in the NHS are clinically obese. I really find it unpleasant to complain about a group at higher risk from Covid being given priority for vaccinations, as they should be - just because you gave up smoking!

In my 60s and don't qualify for the flu jab or covid jab should it happen.

If a 40 year old obese person is at higher risk then so be it. Leave it to the experts who have the full picture to decide. I am blessed to be relatively healthy and more active than many.

I'm obese but I go to a NHS dietary department to STOP losing weight. I have a problem with my pancreas, when I have blood tests they come back as I am malnourished at 13 stone lol! Everyone looks at an obese person and thinks they all overeat. They are wrong. There are funny enough medical conditions that do cause obesity. And I'm one of them.

@Sb2012

I am not saying don’t vaccinate the obese. I have not said that. Anyone high risk should be vaccinated first. That’s fair and the best way forward. However, I am questioning how high risk they are. Is there actual data that puts say a 30 year old obese woman at a higher risk than a 64 years old BAME man? The headlines suggest that the obese adult would be prioritised. If there is such data or evidence where is it? I am not for one moment attacking anyone who is obese, but I am entitled to my opinion just as much as the next person. Also those of you taking about personal responsibility or being selfish etc like I said we (my family and I) have and are doing our bit to help keep cases down and therefore death rates down, but what kind of a message are we giving to people with a BMI of 40+? Are we just saying carry on like you are because it’s ok you will get a vaccine. Obese ppl with such high BMIs didn’t get to that weight overnight. Surely they have been told and are aware of the risks they are invited upon themselves by continuing to pile on the weight. I used to smoke so did DH. When we learnt of the real risks we quit. We are still very tempted to take the habit back up again after all these years but we don’t. There is such a thing as personal responsibility and throwing obese people a lifeline for all health problems bought on by not doing something about their weight isn’t solving the problem either. The majority of very obese people have other health issues too and therefore put on extra pressure on the already struggling NHS. That’s also selfish. I’m sorry you can’t call me selfish when I pay an awful lot of tax that in turn helps the NHS to support the people who have problems from being overweight. I probably pay more tax than the average obese person, what about not being selfish and letting the NHS pay some attention to people like me too?

What the hell? How do you know people pay in tax? You have no bloody idea! You are a rude & ignorant person, did you just decide to ignore the comments posted on the rest of the thread that showed the scientific data showing high bmi is a risk factor? If someone is over a bmi of 40 it is highly likely they have an eating disorder, bet you wouldn't be so cruel towards an anorexic person but hey they're thin not their fault and take up less space than the fatties.

I don't like the fact my taxes pay towards ignorant twats, do yourself a favour and get educated. So angry reading your comments how dare you judge people you have no idea about, you are clearly a daily Mail reader that agrees with everything they publish.

I can't wait to get the jab and it's even better knowing I'm getting it before you so I can go out & enjoy my fat life in the real world again

As someone who is morbidly obese it's absolutely soul destroying to be ostracised because of my weight.

You wouldn't believe the amount of times I'm unfairly judged,treated differently,treated as though I'm stupid,overlooked by people,have the piss taken out of me and verbally abused because of my weight.

People stare at me when I eat in public and I've had people make nasty comments whilst I'm eating and my husband is also judged because he's a slim good looking man and has had comments made such as surely he could do so much better than a fat bird for a wife and asked if he's a chubby chaser.

Each time that happens it chips away at my self confidence,it constantly makes me self conscious and it causes anxiety about being out in public and makes me afraid of eating in public .It also makes me anxious about going out socially with my own husband especially if I'm meeting say a work colleague or friend of his for the first time.

l've recently lost nearly 4 stone,I'm still morbidly obese but I'm on my way,ill never be a healthy weight,I have shitty health problems and I've 2 disabled kids to care for and I work so have sweet FA time to myself to go to the gym etc.

I really wish people would stop attempting to validate someone based on their weight.You don't know their story.

And the assumption that I and others should be back of the queue for a vaccine because we're "fat" is disgusting.

People should take note of the saying "treat others the way you want to be treated"

Prioritise those most likely to get seriously ill and less doctors and nurses will need to work on Covid wards.

More doctors and nurses going back to specialisms and more clinics opening will probably mean more childhood cancers detected early. Also more apparently healthy parents with early cancer screened.

A family like OPs somewhere in the country may avoid losing someone to cancer because of all the obese people vaccinated.

May I take this opportunity to especially thank all obese people working as doctors, nurses and in other healthcare roles. Your hard work and dedication is appreciated.

So let’s get this right - the country has been in the wave of a pandemic since March, with people being told to isolate for some of that, and with gyms and exercise classes closed.

Then there’s the mental stress of worrying about illness, grieving relatives who have died, or fitting work into a day - or night - while also looking after children. There’s the stress of redundancy, of people’s businesses going under.

Then there’s headlines about possible food shortages in January.

To anyone who has managed to stay fit and lose weight during all this, huge congratulations to you. It is not an easy time to do it.

Overeating/under-exercising is so bound up in emotional distress or anxiety or depression or childhood trauma for so many people. Pandemics and chaotic governance can lead to all sorts of coping strategies, and for some people they’re unhealthy, like comfort eating or drinking too much.

Let vaccines be given to those most at risk without all this judging of people you clearly know nothing about.

How would they know? I'm obese and the only time I've had any medical attention over the last god knows how many years were my 2 child births, one of which I didn't even reach the maternity ward because it was such a text book birth and the other where my son spent 3 months in hosptial because he was 13 weeks prem but I was out of bed 7 hours after my epidural and was sent home.

No smear ?
No contraception ?

I think the op just doesn’t understand why there is a prioritisation list like this.

She’s clearly thinking who is more likely to get it and who has “earned” it. That is not the rationale behind the prioritisation. Even though teachers and supermarket workers statistically are at no more risk than anyone else.

The rationale is obvs you give it to the most vulnerable in society first, someone who is more likely to need hospitalisation and faces a higher risk of death, you need to get back to using the nhs for other patients who need it,

In no sane world would you give it to someone who is likely to have only mild to no symptoms over someone who would likely need weeks of hospitalisation and who it is more likely to be fatal for. The easiest way to ensure the nhs doesn’t become over whelmed is to vaccinate those likely to need its resources,

An obese person with a bmi over forty is way more likely to need hospitalisation and face death than a healthy weight forty year old teacher, who the odds say won’t even know they have it. The biggest symptom is no symptom,

So I think what’s caused her to post this thread is simply a total lack of understanding of why as a society we must protect the vulnerable first.

So I think what’s caused her to post this thread is simply a total lack of understanding of why as a society we must protect the vulnerable first.

I think you’re being very generous

The OP’s comment about paying more tax than fat people told me that it wasn’t that she was uneducated about the why, she just feels more entitled to her life returning to normal than someone who has inflicted fatness upon themself.

The government is only interested in the burden on NHS, not saving lives

You vaccinate those that will be more likely to be hospitalised, as that keeps hospitals clear

@2/3 of people in the UK are obese and they are more at risk so it makes sense to vaccinate them as a priority . And vaccination doesn’t equate immediately back to a normal life - hands face space would still be recommended for the foreseeable and immediate future .

Vaccines should go to those most at risk.

The idea that obese people don’t “deserve” to get a vaccine is awful. I notice the DM also has a pop at type 2 diabetics in the same piece. Shall we not give them the vaccine either.

By all means let’s have wider conversations about weight and how to address issues and get healthier. But that’s not something that can happen overnight.

If you are at risk you are at risk.

Let’s not shame ourselves as a society by going down a nasty route of saying people dont deserve to get a vaccine.

I always thought they were in the CV (not shielded) group anyway, no 7 on the list I believe

If someone is vulnerable then they are vulnerable and need to get the vaccine. End of. Your would have been welcomed into the Nazi party in the 1930s with those views op.

Perhaps there should be a plus one group vaccinated first entitled c*nts.
Op would that work for you?

I bet the OP is one of those people who is envious and outraged by those lazy disabled people getting the prime parking bays at the supermarket.

OP - You said:
I used to smoke so did DH.
they (ex smokers) still have the same risks of a smoker. It takes months and years for the damage to be undone and sometimes the damage caused by smoking is is irreversible

So who should go first OP?
You, with your self inflicted damaged lungs (and the rest) or an obese person who has never smoked in their life?

I’m sorry you can’t call me selfish when I pay an awful lot of tax that in turn helps the NHS to support the people who have problems from being overweight. I probably pay more tax than the average obese person, what about not being selfish and letting the NHS pay some attention to people like me too?

Fat people pay less tax?
Since when?

What is wrong with you OP?

OP, it's all about reducing the risk of overwhelming the NHS.

If you are obese, and get covid, you have a significantlyhl higher risk of developing complications.

It's not 'fair' but that's the way it has to be to protect the NHS and I'm completely okay with that.

Fat bashing thread

OP is in the ‘why don’t alcoholics just stop drinking’ camp.

Not the sharpest tool in the box are you OP?
You can have my place in the queue.
See it as a sympathetic gesture from me to you.

I think they should vaccinate in order of most at risk of being very ill from covid and dying to those that are the least at risk. If that means people who are obese get it before a healthy 50 year old, so be it. The point of the vaccine is to reduce deaths and stop the NHS becoming overwhelmed. My friend works in ICU in a hot ward, he’s told me numerous time it’s full of people who are obese with obesity related heart disease, so in that grounds I agree with the proposal.

However obesity can be helped and therefore I’m not sure how I feel about obese people being prioritised over those who work in high risk roles.

Do you ever ask yourself how you came to be like this? How society’s attitude towards fat people twisted you up to the point where you think they deserve to die for being fat? To the point where you would advocate actively punishing them for their weight?

Nobody’s born feeling the way you do. You were made this way by a fatphobic society which preyed on your emotions and made you fearful and in need of a scapegoat. You have to try to resist this, because truly you can’t actually want to be this kind of person.