Fat-shamers have felt enabled by Covid, and it's hard to fight back

I cannot stand the toxic atmosphere of glee around the link between coronavirus and obesity

It is not news that there is a connection between Covid mortality rates and a country's obesity level. It may have been confirmed for the first time last week by the World Obesity Forum, but this has been a word-of-mouth truism since the start. Someone always knew a man whose brother-in-law worked in intensive care and said only obese people suffered seriously. I weigh myself every morning, to check that I am still just overweight," said a friend with one of these brothers-in-law.

Then Boris Johnson set this in stone, whining to his cabinet: It's all right for you thinnies." It is not a word, is it, thinnie"? Nor is gloomster". Sometimes, I think that is the summit of the prime minister's arrogance - that he finds the English language incomplete without the interjection of his baby words. At other times, I think his arrogance is more like the mountain in a Japanese etching: there is no top", there is only more" and cloud".