Jonathan Neman, co-founder and co-CEO of sweetgreen.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Sweetgreen CEO and co-founder Jonathan Neman wrote a message on LinkedIn linking obesity to the ongoing pandemic, saying “no vaccine or mask will save us” and proposing taxes on processed foods and refined sugar.
The message was deleted on Wednesday, several hours after Vice posted news about it. Even before Vice’s article, commentators on Neman’s original post called his argument “fat”.
Sweetgreen confidentially filed an initial public offering in June, making it an inopportune time for controversy over the company. Consumer reaction could damage both their reputation and sales, and disable investors.
Neman’s comment comes as the U.S. fights another wave of new Covid-19 cases, leading some localities to impose vaccination or masking requirements. As of Aug. 31, the seven-day average of new daily cases in the U.S. reached 160,455, 6 percent more than a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. Health officials have noted that the highly contagious delta variant is to blame, especially in regions with low vaccination rates.
“78% of hospitalizations due to COVID are obese and overweight people,” Neman wrote in the publication. “Are there any underlying issues that we may not have paid enough attention to?”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has indicated that a body mass index within the range of overweight or obesity is one of the factors that can make someone more likely to suffer from severe Covid-19 disease. However, some medical experts, researchers, and dietitians say that BMI is a flawed health metric because it does not take into account the distribution of body fat or accurately predict the health of different races and demographics.
Neman’s statistics probably come from an article published in March in the CDC’s weekly morbidity and mortality report.
In his post on LinkedIn, Neman also said that Covid is here to stay in the foreseeable future and that the best bet is to focus on overall health, rather than preventing infection.
“We can’t run away from them and no vaccine or mask will save us (I’m vaccinated and I’ll support others to get vaccinated),” Neman wrote.
He also called masks and vaccine mandates a “government scope” and proposed the implementation of health mandates.
“What if we made food that makes us sick illegal? What if we taxed processed foods and refined sugar to pay for the impact of the pandemic?” added.
Taxes on processed foods and refined sugar would likely hit low-income consumers harder. A Sweetgreen salad, starting at $ 9.95, could be out of your budget.
In response to a commenter calling the post “fat-phobic,” Neman said this was not his intention. He wrote that the message was intended to start a conversation about how we should think differently about health and attack the root causes.
A Sweetgreen representative did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.