It can be hard, in the age of COVID, to remember day-by-day what you're allowed to say and what's been forbidden by both "experts" and public opinion. To the latter group you can apparently add the medically accurate remark that being severely overweight is really unhealthy.
Jonathan Neman, the CEO of salad chain Sweetgreen, has found himself tossed into controversy after appearing to assert that the "root cause" of the COVID-19 pandemic is obesity and that society should ban certain foods in response.
"78% of hospitalizations due to COVID are Obese and Overweight people," Neman began his now-deleted LinkedIn post. "Is there an underlying problem that perhaps we have not given enough attention to? Is there another way to think about how we tackle 'healthcare' by addressing the root cause?"...
"Yikes. This is incredibly fat-phobic," wrote one senior manager of content development and self-reported "fan of Sweetgreen for years" in a comment viewed by The Post before Neman apparently deleted it.
"Obesity is unhealthy" is pretty basic stuff—biology 101, physiology 101, anatomy 101... basically a first-year undergrad medical student's class lineup personified.
VICE, on the other hand, classified Neman's claims as merely "somewhat correct" and invited employees of Sweetgreen to reach out if, presumably, they wanted to spill some dirt on the company or something.
Neman himself urged readers to "learn how to best live with [COVID] and focus on overall health vs. preventing infection."
This is now controversial advice. Good to know going forward!
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