He’s 6’2, which makes it an easy mistake to make
One man was prioritized for the coronavirus vaccine because doctors mistakenly thought he was only six inches tall.
Liam Thorp is the political editor of Liverpool Echo. But according to his doctor’s notes, he was a man just six inches tall – and a BMI (body mass index) of over 28,000.
In fact, it would make him look even stranger than one of those Spurs dolls.
Understandably, this also placed him in a relatively high risk category due to the urgent need for a coronavirus vaccine.
Thorp explained the confusion with hilarious details on Twitter.
So I won’t be getting the vaccine next week – I was feeling awkward about why I was selected before the others, so I called the doctor to check. It turns out that they had my height of 6.2 cm instead of 6 feet 2, which gave me a BMI of 28,000 😂
– Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021
Thorp wrote: “So I’m not going to get a vaccine next week – I was feeling awkward about why I was selected before others, so I called the GP to check. It turns out they were 6.2 inches tall at instead of 1.8 m, giving me a BMI of 28,000. “
I mean, I gained a few pounds in the block, but not so many
– Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021
Perhaps the funniest part of the story is the response from Thorp’s mother. Upon being informed of the error, she replied “Well, maybe this is the wake-up call you need”.
When I told my mom I had been classified in the clinically obese category, she said ‘well, maybe this is the warning sign that you need’
– Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021
Perhaps the confusion is due to poor handwriting, an apparently common feature among doctors.
Writing in an article for his employer, Thorp said: “I am 32 years old with no underlying health problems and, although I could be described as being burly, I would not have considered myself clinically obese (even after confinement).”
BMI is a measure of body weight in conjunction with height. A BMI of 26/27 is generally classified as overweight, although there are complications in the data due to the fact that the muscle has a higher density than the fat.
Many professional athletes are considered obese according to the BMI, when many times this could not be further from the truth. It has more relevance as a measure of larger population scales. The BMI may say, for example, that Spaniards are, on average, thinner than the populations of the Pacific islands.
It is quite surprising that the scale does not spontaneously combust when seeing someone with a measurement of 28,000, however.