Shouldn't Harvard Be Smarter Than This?

[stdesjardins]

This stuff about the Obama's surgeon general nominee being overweight is really absurd.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=8129947&page=1

"I think it is an issue, but then the president is said to still smoke cigarettes," said Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine who is now a senior lecturer at Harvard University Medical School. "It tends to undermine her credibility."

"We don't know how much she weighs and just looking at her I would not say she is grotesquely obese or even overweight enough to affect her health," Angell told ABCNews.com.

"But I do think at a time when a lot of public health concern is about the national epidemic of obesity, having a surgeon general who is noticeably overweight raises questions in people's minds," she added.

If she's not overweight enough to affect her health, how can that undermine her credibility? If it has any affect at on all her ability to do her job, wouldn't it actually enhance it, by giving her an opportunity to educate people about what range of weights is truly healthy? If you're arguing logically, that is.

Comments

[dr-brat.livejournal.com]

I can't help but wonder if a male would even have had the issue raised about him.

[daviddesj.livejournal.com]

I think she's being disingenuous by saying that Benjamin is overweight, but not enough to affect her health. It doesn't make any sense. It's not like you add 10 pounds, and it has no effect, but suddenly it's the next pound that kills you. Excess weight is not good for you, the more there is the worse it is.