The COVID-19 pandemic is both a public health crisis as well as an economic catastrophe. The current administration is inept and its inability to run even a basic working government, has led, as of the writing of this story, to more than 90,000 dead Americans. One of Trump’s wild Yosemite Sam-like attempts to deflect his historic failure to the American public has been to push the unproven, and so far completely debunked, immunosuppressive drug hydroxychloroquine as a miracle treatment for COVID-19.
On Monday, Trump told news outlets that he himself was taking a drug used to prevent malaria and treat lupus and arthritis. Some of the more serious side effects of the drug are paranoia, hallucinations, and death. Anderson Cooper had Speaker Nancy Pelosi on to discuss the $3 trillion HEROES Act that the House passed last Friday evening. Cooper also asked Pelosi what she thought about Trump’s declaration that he was taking hydroxychloroquine.
Pelosi explained that she really didn’t think it was a good idea for the president of the United States to “be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group—morbidly obese, they say. So I think it's not a good idea.” I can’t disagree with her assessment.
Adult Body Mass Index (BMI) is the metric by which medical professionals define both obesity and “morbid,” or “extreme,” or “severe” obesity. According to Donald Trump’s last official physical—something we can all take with a grain of dear leader salt—Trump weighed 243 pounds and stands about 6’3” tall. That puts his BMI at 30, which the CDC defines as “obese.” So, Trump and friends can pick nits on whether Speaker Pelosi was being hyperbolic, but Donald Trump is definitely an older gentleman and an obese one. The CDC also warns that obesity can raise one’s risk of severe illness from COVID-19.