#Tag
Yale New Haven hospitals have partially reinstated a mask mandate. Anything is helpful, but they could do better with a permanent mandate, for everyone, with N95+ respirators.
Weight Loss Is Not a Substitute for Healthcare: Part 1- The Basics
https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/weight-loss-is-not-a-substitute-for
"The idea that higher-weight people can reach whatever weight healthcare wants them to in order to access care is questionable at best (and we’ll discuss that later,) but even if they could, the idea that people do or do not deserve care based on their body size is still horrifying and is still at the root of suffering and even death for higher-weight people.
This has been going on for a long-time - from holding healthcare hostage for a weight loss ransom, to recommending weight loss surgeries for type 2 diabetes in higher-weight patients (when thin patients with the same diagnosis and labs are not asked to take the major risks and life changes of those surgeries), to tools and equipment that aren’t properly rated for higher-weight patients, and more.
That said, with the advent of the new generation of GLP-1 weight loss drugs (and their relentless marketing as “miracle” weight loss drugs), I’ve been seeing and hearing about this even more, with providers, facilities, and insurance companies treating these drugs as a substitute for providing proper care to higher-weight people.
I want to be clear that I take a firm view of bodily autonomy in general as well as specific to this situation, I would never shame or blame a patient who attempted to lose weight in order to access healthcare or for whatever their reasons or sincerely held beliefs about weight loss might be. I also take a firm view of what constitutes the ethical, evidence-based practice of healthcare, including informed consent, and that’s where we run into an issue with this substitution of weight loss for healthcare.
One clear and obvious example is BMI-based denials of care. This happens when a patient is told that they cannot have a procedure they need or want (for example joint surgeries, spinal surgeries, or gender affirming care) unless or until they reach a certain BMI or percentage of weight loss.
Rather than creating healthcare for the patients who exist, the suggestion is that higher-weight patients don’t deserve care unless and until they become thinner patients. This also quickly becomes a matter of privilege and resources - a patient’s access to care can determine their fate - some patients can get a procedure and/or accommodation at a BMI at which another patient will be denied. Those with better insurance, the resources and ability to travel etc. have a better chance of accessing care.
The other issue is with accommodation. This occurs when higher-weight patients don’t have access to the same things that thinner patients have. This includes everything from a chair they can sit in, imaging equipment, a bed in the emergency room or hospital, a table in the cath lab, an overbed and/or hoyer lift and/or appropriate staffing ratio to help providers move patients in ways that keep both safe, and more.
Higher-weight patients can face a healthcare system that was not built for them. This can also be life or death. I was advocating for a patient meeting with a cardiologist at a very highly-regarded cardiology center. The cardiologist told that patient that if she did have a heart attack, the table in the cath lab was not appropriately weight-rated for the patient and there would be “nothing to do” but medically manage and “watch.” (The facility has since acquired tables rated for higher weight.)
For those who can’t access appropriate, accommodating care, the recommendation is often to lose weight. And I’m using the term “recommendation” loosely here because at this point the patient's healthcare is being held hostage for a weight loss ransom. We have to start and keep asking questions about the ethics of this, the potential coercion (and the ramifications for patients and providers when, for example, a surgeons is being begged by a patient to give them a weight loss surgery that the surgeon knows the patient doesn’t want to have.
We have to ask questions about an attitude that the provider/facility/insurance will not treat the patient who exists and needs treatment, and will only treat a hypothetical patient that they believe/hope this patient might possibly become (after enduring difficult and sometimes risky interventions). And if the patient will not subject themselves to the risks of (trying) to become that (thinner) patient, healthcare will allow the patient to suffer and even die and blame the patient.
Certainly the paternalistic and coercive nature of this is a huge issue here, but even if someone believes that weight loss is an appropriate substitute for care or accommodation, there would be some questions they would need to answer around both the denial and delay of care."
#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice
Weight Loss Is Not a Substitute for Healthcare: Part 1- The Basics
https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/weight-loss-is-not-a-substitute-for
"The idea that higher-weight people can reach whatever weight healthcare wants them to in order to access care is questionable at best (and we’ll discuss that later,) but even if they could, the idea that people do or do not deserve care based on their body size is still horrifying and is still at the root of suffering and even death for higher-weight people.
This has been going on for a long-time - from holding healthcare hostage for a weight loss ransom, to recommending weight loss surgeries for type 2 diabetes in higher-weight patients (when thin patients with the same diagnosis and labs are not asked to take the major risks and life changes of those surgeries), to tools and equipment that aren’t properly rated for higher-weight patients, and more.
That said, with the advent of the new generation of GLP-1 weight loss drugs (and their relentless marketing as “miracle” weight loss drugs), I’ve been seeing and hearing about this even more, with providers, facilities, and insurance companies treating these drugs as a substitute for providing proper care to higher-weight people.
I want to be clear that I take a firm view of bodily autonomy in general as well as specific to this situation, I would never shame or blame a patient who attempted to lose weight in order to access healthcare or for whatever their reasons or sincerely held beliefs about weight loss might be. I also take a firm view of what constitutes the ethical, evidence-based practice of healthcare, including informed consent, and that’s where we run into an issue with this substitution of weight loss for healthcare.
One clear and obvious example is BMI-based denials of care. This happens when a patient is told that they cannot have a procedure they need or want (for example joint surgeries, spinal surgeries, or gender affirming care) unless or until they reach a certain BMI or percentage of weight loss.
Rather than creating healthcare for the patients who exist, the suggestion is that higher-weight patients don’t deserve care unless and until they become thinner patients. This also quickly becomes a matter of privilege and resources - a patient’s access to care can determine their fate - some patients can get a procedure and/or accommodation at a BMI at which another patient will be denied. Those with better insurance, the resources and ability to travel etc. have a better chance of accessing care.
The other issue is with accommodation. This occurs when higher-weight patients don’t have access to the same things that thinner patients have. This includes everything from a chair they can sit in, imaging equipment, a bed in the emergency room or hospital, a table in the cath lab, an overbed and/or hoyer lift and/or appropriate staffing ratio to help providers move patients in ways that keep both safe, and more.
Higher-weight patients can face a healthcare system that was not built for them. This can also be life or death. I was advocating for a patient meeting with a cardiologist at a very highly-regarded cardiology center. The cardiologist told that patient that if she did have a heart attack, the table in the cath lab was not appropriately weight-rated for the patient and there would be “nothing to do” but medically manage and “watch.” (The facility has since acquired tables rated for higher weight.)
For those who can’t access appropriate, accommodating care, the recommendation is often to lose weight. And I’m using the term “recommendation” loosely here because at this point the patient's healthcare is being held hostage for a weight loss ransom. We have to start and keep asking questions about the ethics of this, the potential coercion (and the ramifications for patients and providers when, for example, a surgeons is being begged by a patient to give them a weight loss surgery that the surgeon knows the patient doesn’t want to have.
We have to ask questions about an attitude that the provider/facility/insurance will not treat the patient who exists and needs treatment, and will only treat a hypothetical patient that they believe/hope this patient might possibly become (after enduring difficult and sometimes risky interventions). And if the patient will not subject themselves to the risks of (trying) to become that (thinner) patient, healthcare will allow the patient to suffer and even die and blame the patient.
Certainly the paternalistic and coercive nature of this is a huge issue here, but even if someone believes that weight loss is an appropriate substitute for care or accommodation, there would be some questions they would need to answer around both the denial and delay of care."
#MaskUp #WearAMask #CovidRealist #CovidIsAirbone #LongCovid #YallMasking #DisabledLiberation #DisabilityJustice
Yale New Haven hospitals have partially reinstated a mask mandate. Anything is helpful, but they could do better with a permanent mandate, for everyone, with N95+ respirators.
A resident of Washington State has died from H5N5, a variant of bird flu never before seen in humans.
First known case, first death.
Wear a mask, ideally a well fitted respirator like an N95.
RFK Jr has gutted the CDC.
There’s no plan to deal with another pandemic.
No one is coming to save you.
Masking is an act of resistance and radical community care.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/21/health/washington-bird-flu-death
#birdflu #h5n5 #publichealth #rfkjr #wearamask #uspol #disabilty #chronicillness
A resident of Washington State has died from H5N5, a variant of bird flu never before seen in humans.
First known case, first death.
Wear a mask, ideally a well fitted respirator like an N95.
RFK Jr has gutted the CDC.
There’s no plan to deal with another pandemic.
No one is coming to save you.
Masking is an act of resistance and radical community care.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/21/health/washington-bird-flu-death
#birdflu #h5n5 #publichealth #rfkjr #wearamask #uspol #disabilty #chronicillness
How Covid damages the brain and central nervous system, and how it is affecting our society and our children.
"Hardly anyone in the scientific, health or public policy arenas ever breathes a whisper of acknowledgement that current troubling escalations in violence, traffic accidents and severity, workforce faltering and long term disability trace back to the start of this pandemic. Hardly any of them even admit the pandemic is still ongoing.
One of the parents I mentioned was startled by my remark that I expected this. When I explained what I have laid out here, they said the violent child has always been unusual, but violence and wild irrationality came after the household caught COVID."
How Covid damages the brain and central nervous system, and how it is affecting our society and our children.
"Hardly anyone in the scientific, health or public policy arenas ever breathes a whisper of acknowledgement that current troubling escalations in violence, traffic accidents and severity, workforce faltering and long term disability trace back to the start of this pandemic. Hardly any of them even admit the pandemic is still ongoing.
One of the parents I mentioned was startled by my remark that I expected this. When I explained what I have laid out here, they said the violent child has always been unusual, but violence and wild irrationality came after the household caught COVID."
If you want to support me you can:
* donate to the @FediverseFoundation
* report malicious content (when in doubt, report)
* report bad instances to the FediBlock hashtag
* research which instance best fits you and migrate away from mastodon.social
* wear a mask in public
* don't go to work sick
* vaccinate
* help me out with my bills (I pay 5€ a day for supplements excluding medication, because of a PAIS [post accute infectious syndrome like post covid, mecfs or whatever] - my health bills alone exceed my income)
* spread empathy, not hate
* use your brain, not a billionaire-funded neuronal network
* teach your kids cooperation instead of competition
* be kind to yourself and others
* don't judge yourself if you can't support me with all or any of these points
Thank you for your support!
#FediverseFoundation #FediBlockMeta #MastodonSocial #WearAMask #vaccination #pais #PostCovid #LongCovid #mecfs #empathy #SpreadKindness
If you want to support me you can:
* donate to the @FediverseFoundation
* report malicious content (when in doubt, report)
* report bad instances to the FediBlock hashtag
* research which instance best fits you and migrate away from mastodon.social
* wear a mask in public
* don't go to work sick
* vaccinate
* help me out with my bills (I pay 5€ a day for supplements excluding medication, because of a PAIS [post accute infectious syndrome like post covid, mecfs or whatever] - my health bills alone exceed my income)
* spread empathy, not hate
* use your brain, not a billionaire-funded neuronal network
* teach your kids cooperation instead of competition
* be kind to yourself and others
* don't judge yourself if you can't support me with all or any of these points
Thank you for your support!
#FediverseFoundation #FediBlockMeta #MastodonSocial #WearAMask #vaccination #pais #PostCovid #LongCovid #mecfs #empathy #SpreadKindness
I hate the notion that it’s “unreasonable” to expect masking in public places.
As I’ve said before, we all share the air. When we care about the air we share, we all benefit.
I think it’s unreasonable to accept mass sickness and disability when we have the tools to stop it.
I think it’s unreasonable to expect disabled people to “just stay home forever”
I think it’s unreasonable to put the burden of infection control squarely on those who are already sick and/or high risk.
I think it’s unreasonable that we’re choosing not to adapt, when adaptation would make us all healthier.
I think it’s unreasonable to risk your long term health just because you don’t “want” to wear a respirator.
Banger article on COVID and masking from Julia Doubleday:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thegauntlet/p/beyond-all-reason?r=19dk2e&utm_medium=ios
#CovidIsNotOver #covidisairborne #n95 #WearAMask #disability #chronicillness #ableism
I hate the notion that it’s “unreasonable” to expect masking in public places.
As I’ve said before, we all share the air. When we care about the air we share, we all benefit.
I think it’s unreasonable to accept mass sickness and disability when we have the tools to stop it.
I think it’s unreasonable to expect disabled people to “just stay home forever”
I think it’s unreasonable to put the burden of infection control squarely on those who are already sick and/or high risk.
I think it’s unreasonable that we’re choosing not to adapt, when adaptation would make us all healthier.
I think it’s unreasonable to risk your long term health just because you don’t “want” to wear a respirator.
Banger article on COVID and masking from Julia Doubleday:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thegauntlet/p/beyond-all-reason?r=19dk2e&utm_medium=ios
#CovidIsNotOver #covidisairborne #n95 #WearAMask #disability #chronicillness #ableism
https://x.com/SMpwrgr/status/1971532910273679570
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5PWCFTJ
Link to Aussie health care survey. Please take 10min to advocate for clean air in health care.
#CleanAir #Covid #covid19 #AusCovid19 #WearAMask #COVIDisAirborne #CovidIsNotOver
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