Morning Wire - Obesity Acceptance & Parents Battle over Masks

Episode Date: January 29, 2022

Obesity acceptance in fashion magazines, the results of Sweden’s voluntary Covid policies, and parents fight over masks in Virginia's schools. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can you be obese and healthy at the same time? In an effort to take body positivity to the next level, a variety of fitness and fashion magazines are pushing controversial claims about health and fitness, and doctors are raising red flags. So unfortunately, obesity and morbid obesity, and even being overweight has become so common in our country. It's about 70% of our population.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's January 29th, and this is, is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire. In sharp contrast to the way most of the world handled the COVID-19 pandemic, Sweden famously did not institute widespread lockdowns or shutter schools. We'll take a close look at the country's

highly scrutinized policies and their results. And school districts are openly defying Virginia Governor Glenn Yonkin's executive order making masks optional in school. We'll look at the battle over authority in Virginia between county and state. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.

we have the news you need to know. This show is sponsored by Dwell. The Wisdom of the Bible has stood the test of centuries, and reading it is well worth everyone's time. But having time to read anything these days is becoming increasingly difficult. That's why Dwell exists. This five-star audio Bible app makes it so easy

to get into the Bible by providing a world-class listening experience of this timeless book. And today, you can try Dwell for free by going to Dwellap.io-Morningwire. That's Dwellap.io-Morningwire. Let God's word be read over you. Is obesity compatible with good health?

A recent push by a variety of popular magazines to take the stigma out of obesity is drawing sharp criticism. Here to tell us more about the trend is Daily Wire Entertainment reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, you've reported that there's a trend in women's magazines of claiming that obesity is compatible with fitness.

So how prevalent is this new claim? Well, you know, it's pretty prevalent. I'm seeing it in several. places. So numerous leading influential publications out right now, including Self Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Health, Paper Magazine, a couple of others. They've all been leading the charge on what they're calling body positivity. So British Cosmo was one of the first pioneers of this trend when it famously featured two prominently plus-sized women on its February 2021 cover with the headline this is healthy. So that generated a lot of controversy at the time. Now, to clarify, the two women on

that cover weren't simply heavy by the fashion industry's unrealistic standards. They really appeared to be what doctors would refer to as clinically morbidly obese. So that's defined as more than 80 to 100 pounds over ideal body weight. So from there, this accompanying story isn't about eating well, reducing blood pressure, or any of those objective standards of health. It's about these women's, and I'm quoting here, personal journeys to reclaim healthy as their own. So you flash forward to today, January of 2022, and the trend is just seemingly everywhere. Very similar language is repeated in Health Magazine's current cover story, where a plus-sized model is critiquing, quote-unquote, society, including doctors, for telling her that her body

is unhealthy. Self Magazine, favorite of mine in college, also has a cover story out right now, again with a woman who appears to be morbidly obese. And that title is the future of fitness. And then just this month, the lead story in Cosmo is a critique of the popular weight loss app, Noom, for its emphasis on, you might guess, weight loss, with the author seeming to imply that the goal of losing weight itself is unhealthy. So yeah, I would say this is very much a trend. And so it sounds like there's an attempt in media at least to not just de-emphasize the importance of weight,

in health, but to actually shift the meaning of the word healthy from something measurable, like body mass index or blood sugar levels, to something more subjective. Like, do I feel good? Right. That's exactly right. And I think that's an important distinction, because this is really a shift away from talking about physical health as something grounded in quantifiable metrics and more toward this idea of subjective feelings of well-being. And I think it's important that we clarify here. we're talking about health, not beauty. So obviously a person can look fabulous and still have a high blood pressure. And one could argue that destigmatizing obesity is a step forward for mental health.

Right. Now, that's a good point. But that said, the debate over this trend has really heated up in the age of COVID specifically. Because beyond the fact that obesity is the second highest cause of preventable death in the U.S., numerous studies have demonstrated the link between obesity and severe COVID outcomes, including a 48% increase in death from COVID. So here's obesity specialist Dr. Megan Mecher-Cox on some of the other risks of obesity. Health consequences, of course, most of us are aware of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol risks going up, and probably less commonly that people are aware that breast cancer risk goes up, as does colon cancer in a number of others.

So these fitness and fashion media are really starting to see some backlash for de-emphasizing weight loss as a healthy choice in the middle of a pandemic. Right. And we also saw how upset fans got when Adele lost weight, Rebel Wilson, same thing. So what's behind this push for magazines? Well, I think there's definitely a certain amount of activist pressure, but you can't overlook the profit motive, too. As Dr. Messer-Cox pointed out, about 70% of Americans are overweight, and that percentage is always growing. So maybe magazine executives are thinking that this content is going to appeal to a larger segment of the population, and thus, of course, sell more magazines.

All right, well, Megan, thanks for reporting. Absolutely my pleasure. That's Daily Wire Entertainment reporter, Megan Basham. Coming up, the results of Sweden's anti-lockdown COVID policies, plus the battle over face masks in schools rages in Virginia. This show is sponsored by Tessa Maze. Looking for a great way to bring amazing flavor to your meals? Tessamaze is the number one organic salad dressing company in the country because they put quality and flavor above all else.

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Thanks, Ben. Thanks, John. First of all, can you tell us what Sweden did differently than other countries? Well, almost everything. In general, Sweden took a more laissez-faire approach. State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, sort of the reverse Anthony Fauci of Sweden,

told people the best way to fight the coronavirus was to stay at home and observe social. distancing, but the measures were largely voluntary, and the police handed out virtually no citations if people violated those protocols. Schools remained open for students through the age of 16. Now, secondary schools and universities switched to remote learning, but they still met in person as necessary to cover certain important subject matter and to take tests together. In some areas, wearing face masks was actively discouraged for people of all ages. And although the government recently reduce the number of people allowed for indoor gatherings.

To this day, Sweden has never implemented a mandatory lockdown. Really? It's true. As a matter of fact, Sweden's health minister, Lena Hollengren, described the philosophy behind this guidance. How are we going to live our lives for such a long time and not just surviving but living? I think that has been very crucial for the authority, and not least for the Swedish government.

Now, before we talk about the results, do we know to what extent Swedish citizens observed COVID measures on the honor system? Well, by all means, they did well. That's not surprising. Sweden's a highly homogenous society that values conformity.

Dr. Tegnell said that Swedes voluntarily eliminated about 70% of their social activity. That's about the same rate as nations with government-imposed lockdowns. So the Swedish people willingly cut back their activities, but with no masks or formal prohibitions. That's right. What were Sweden's overall results in fighting COVID-19?

Honestly, it was a mixed bag. Sweden's current COVID-19 death rate is worse than Germany's where people are literally rioting in the streets against the nation's exacting COVID enforcement. Yeah. But it's better than countries with much harsher lockdown policies, including Italy, the UK, France, and the United States. At one point last summer, Sweden's COVID death toll actually fell to zero

while dozens died in the UK and hundreds died in the United States. Swedish schoolchildren had a relative. low incidence of severe COVID-19 cases. Out of almost two million children, only 15 went to ICU because of COVID. That's about eight trillions of one percent of all children. Maybe most importantly, Sweden didn't see a surge of teenage suicides. In the United States, attempted suicides among teenage girls rose 51 percent during the pandemic. Thankfully, they've been spared that. Yeah, thankfully. Now, Sweden's COVID protocols had a dark side as well. Tell us about that. Right, there's an ugly underbelly to this story. It's true that hospitals and ICUs never came close to being overwhelmed,

but the Swedish government instructed hospitals, before admitting anyone, they had to consider the patient's overall health. In practice, that meant that emergency rooms denied treatment to elderly patients, sometimes as young as 65, or to anyone who had a body mass index over 40. So really rationing care there. That's exactly what they were doing. Instead of oxygen and IV treatments, nursing homes gave patients palliative. care and morphine injections. A married couple in Sweden who lost a relative in a care facility described his fate. I felt that they sacrificed the elderly and it's very wrong because I think that you should

give everyone a chance to survive. Heartbreaking stories like that are all too common in countries that have a national health care system and introduce rationing in health care. Yeah, heartbreaking indeed. Thanks for bringing this information to us. Everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Definitely. Thanks, Ben.

Thank you, John. That's DailyWire's Ben Johnson. On Monday, Virginia Governor Glenn Yonkin's executive order went into effect, allowing parents to choose to send their kids to school without a mask. Several school districts in Northern Virginia refused to recognize the executive order, and children who invoked it were either refused entry to school or segregated into special holding rooms. Seven districts filed a lawsuit against the governor over the order that morning. Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak was on site at schools in Loudoun and Fairfax, counties to report on the showdown. So, Luke, what's going on with Virginia public schools? Hey, well, like you said, after taking office earlier this month, Governor Yonkin issued an order preventing mask mandates in schools, basically giving that decision back to parents. But right now,

it looks like a lot of school districts are just defying that order, actually going out of their way to advertise their noncompliance. And you've been on the ground in Virginia talking to some of these parents. What are they saying? Yeah, on Tuesday, I accompanied one mom, Carrie Lucas, of the Independent Women's Network and her two elementary school students to school in Fairfax County. Per the governor's order, the kids were not wearing masks. When we arrived, an assistant principal was waiting out front to block the kids for mentoring. That assistant principal was joined by a security guard and a media liaison who told me that I

couldn't observe the situation. Here's Carrie. I told them my position, and I was told that kids are not welcome if they are not wearing masks in the school. So my kids were effectively suspended for the day. You think about the waste and everything that Fairfax County public schools should be doing with those dollars, all of the problems and the needs we hear about consistently. They're hiring press teams. They're filing lawsuits.

I think they've dug in and they aren't putting kids first. They obviously have other priorities. So children who showed up without a mask were prevented from entering the building, even after their mom explained that they were in compliance with the governor's order? Yes. In Carrie Lucas's case, that's what I saw. It was a surprising amount of hygiene theater that I saw at the school. The vast majority of kids did comply without resistance. Fairfax claims only 24 out of its 180,000 students showed up without masks.

In Loudoun, the number was a bit higher. One father told me unmasked kids have been kept in a room where they're not allowed to talk all day and just told to learn online. Okay, so quite a few districts are ignoring the order, and several districts are actually challenging it in court. So what does that suit look like? Sure. One case has its first hearing in an Arlington Circuit Court February 2nd, and another case brought by parents is already before Virginia Supreme Court. Essentially at issue is who's in charge. Fairfax County, which is challenging the state, said in a statement that, quote, at issue is whether locally elected school boards have the exclusive authority in their respective communities or whether an executive order can unilaterally override that constitutional authority. The problem is, as some parents pointed out, last year, Democratic Governor Ralph Northam issued a public health order that required school districts to mask students. Now, back when Northam was in office, did we see any school districts that simply defied that order? No, not that I know of.

And what is Governor Yonkin said about all this? Right now, he's encouraging parents to follow school rules and trust that the court system will rule in their favor. All right. Well, Luke, we're going to keep an eye on this. Thanks so much for reporting. Thank you. That's Daily Wire investigative reporter, Luke Rosiac. If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.

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