Obesity rates and the disease's effects on healthcare demand are well known. Hospitals are built based on predictions of how many types of patients and diseases they will treat. The mitigation of effects of obesity are built into our healthcare system already.

What throws a wrench into all of that planning, and ability to predict and respond to healthcare demand, is a novel pandemic that sends massive amounts of people to the ICU, which the healthcare system was never built to handle.

sort of, but not quite. you've articulated a good argument for something like a fat tax, but being fat doesn't immediately make others around you fat. (yes, you can be a bad influence on someone, but that won't land them in the icu in 2 weeks).

but of course you already knew that.

But it does fill up ICU beds. The vaccines are not very effective at stopping spread of the delta variant so the metaphor still holds.

it is a really bad metaphor.

what fills up icu beds? obesity? not acutely, that will take years to infect another person.

the vaccines are not great at stopping the spread of delta but they are great at preventing people who get it from going to the hospital.

> the vaccines are not great at stopping the spread of delta

that's not an accurate take on how the vaccines work against delta.

the vaccine makes it so you are much less likely to get the virus in the first place. it also shortens the time you are infectious to other people if you do get a breakthrough case since your bodies immune system response goes into effect immediately and not after a while. an extremely simplified view is: antibodies neutralize free floating viral particles(antigens). B cells create antibodies. T cells tell B cells to go make antibodies and also kill infected cells with cytotoxins.

when you are vaccinated your T cells and B cells already know what to do if they see viruses so they can mount a defense immediately and it shortens the infectious period. in addition you will still have antibodies left over(i am unsure if you still make more for a period of time after the vaccine without any antigens) from when you got the vaccine so you will have a lower likelihood of getting sick in the first place since the antibodies can neutralize the antigens before they have a chance to infect too many cells and create more antigens.

by the nature of not getting sick in the first place and by not being infectious for as long the spread of delta is slowed

Diabetes and obesity is a risk factor in almost every ailment including cancer and heart disease, not to mention Covid itself. Of course it contributes to filling up ICUs.

are you intentionally straw manning me? i specifically acknowledged what you're claiming, and have been clear about how that doesn't make it comparable to something as fast acting as a virus.

you're fighting a point that has not been made.

I guess I misunderstood. Both being obese and being unvaccinated are risk factors for ending up in the ICU due to Covid. One is morally reprehensible according to some people and the other isn’t. I think we should accept both or none.

yeah fair enough, i appreciate the social disconnect there

The difference is there aren't enough of them to bring our healthcare system to it's knees. Hospitals in many states are having to ration care, and triage patients right now. Before the pandemic, this only happened in rare emergencies (terrorist attacks, mass shootings)

No because those people don't tend to fill up all hospital beds at once.