To conquer this pandemic, we need shots in arms. Not getting the vaccine can hurt us all. Some people with high BMIs are reluctant because the metric is a poor indicator of health According to the CDC, 42% of American adults have obesity. All that means is they have a certain height-to-weight ratio. It doesn't tell us about how much body fat they have or where it's stored, how active they are or how healthy they eat, or anything about their race or socioeconomic status. After all, BMI was originally developed as an epidemiological tool to assess largely white, 19th century European populations, not as a substitute for individualized diagnoses.