• About
  • Advertise
  • FAQs
  • Contact
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Subscribe
The Curvy Fashionista
  • Style
  • Wellness
  • Lifestyle
  • Entertainment
  • Curvy CEO
  • Shop TCF
  • Events Calendar
    • Add Your Event
  • The Plus Directory
No Result
View All Result
  • Style
  • Wellness
  • Lifestyle
  • Entertainment
  • Curvy CEO
  • Shop TCF
  • Events Calendar
    • Add Your Event
  • The Plus Directory
No Result
View All Result
The Curvy Fashionista
No Result
View All Result

Medical Fatphobia During The Covid-19 Pandemic: It’s Time For Radical Change

Amapoundcake by Amapoundcake
4 years ago
- Last edited by: Mayra Mejia -
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
0
navigating doctor while fat

Photo by StockSnap

409
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The World Health Organization is focusing on health inequalities after a year of living in a pandemic across the globe. To actively work to end inequalities in care, the inequalities have to be named. Medical fatphobia is harming fat people and decreasing their quality of care. 

Medical Fatphobia During The Pandemic

navigating doctor while fat

“Health inequities are not only unjust and unfair, but they also threaten the advances made to date, and have the potential to widen rather than narrow equity gaps.” – World Health Organization 

Surgeries and procedures were put on hold not because of patients’ size but because of a medical system that was not equipped for a pandemic. The pandemic also revealed that it was not prepared to accommodate the most marginalized people; the fat, the poor, Black, Disabled, Trans, POC.

– Amapoundcake

The message has to be more specific.

RelatedPosts

The 6 ‘Compliments’ Plus-Size Women Are Tired of Hearing

5 Tips to Help You Face Diet Culture In the New Year

Op-Ed: Is The Slang ‘Big Back’ Fatphobic?

Weight discrimination is so violent and has deterred fat people from care for so long. Will there be an effort to make medical care safer and more accessible for fat people?  

Which is a huge problem because fat people are diverse and come from different backgrounds. 

French chief epidemiologist Jean-François Delfraissy claims they were concerned about the United States “where they will probably have the most problems because of obesity.”

Instead of providing resources and care for fat people, the response was, as it always is, to use this time to diet and avoid weight gain. 

Medical fatphobia during the pandemic
Image via @RagenChastain

This is a great example of medical fatphobia and concern trolling.

Suggesting that people do not get fatter during the pandemic was not to save their lives. If that were so, there would have been more efforts to bring food to our communities.

https://twitter.com/SultanReina/status/1364440409963982848?s=20

A year since Covid was declared a national pandemic and fat people’s quality of care is not considered. In fact, the medical community is standing on research that feeds into weight stigma. Centra State even went as far as to suggest that fat people focus on switching from “an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet.”

This declaration that Covid 19 is more harmful to fat people because “the immune systems in people with obesity are not as strong”.

Diets will not help fat people recover from the pandemic but innovation, acknowledgment of systematic fatphobia, and commitment to humanizing fat people will.  

Medical fatphobia is also a global pandemic that is harming fat people. Many fat people have expressed their reluctance to visit the physician’s office because of fatphobia. Research suggests that fat people are more likely to die or be hospitalized during Covid.

The studies do not show racial and socioeconomic differences. Weight discrimination is harming fat people.

At the root of obesity research is the omission of racism and anti-Blackness.

World Health Day should have included fatphobia and specified racism. Avoiding explicitly saying “racism” and calling it social issues is the real problem. It never addresses that access to food was denied to Black and Brown people long before the pandemic. There was limited access to medical care, long before covid.

Cropped shot of black female in underwear holding her fat belly. Plus size woman in lingerie holding her belly with both hands on brown background.medical fatphobia during the pandemic

 In her article titled “Covid-19 Does Not Discriminate by Body Weight,” Christy Harrison says, “Structural racism and other forms of inequality in our society have long been linked to worse health outcomes, including higher rates of diabetes and hypertension (two likely Covid-19 risk factors) among people in oppressed groups.” 

The neglect that marginalized people experienced before Covid was exacerbated. 

White privilege allows you to feel this way https://t.co/qE9tqYIBud

— Kim Possible, MD. (@Kim_Buh_Lee) April 6, 2021

There has never been a more perfect time to prioritize fat people’s health. Health equity does not exist without safer care for fat people. It does not exist without addressing the weight stigma that is attached to research and care. 

Tags: body politicsfatphobia
Share152Tweet95
Amapoundcake

Amapoundcake

Related Posts

Surprise! Media’s Still Stuck in 2002: 10 Plus Size Media Topics that Need More Attention
Body Politics

Surprise! Media’s Still Stuck in 2002: 10 Plus Size Media Topics that Need More Attention

by Haley Diaz
March 12, 2025 - Updated on April 1, 2025
Dressed, Styled, and Down the Aisle: Becoming a Stylish Bride by Julie Sabatino
Opinion

Breaking Free of the Body Type Mold for Your Big Day

by Guest Blogger
May 3, 2024 - Updated on March 4, 2025
Bombshell Bridal Boutique
Lifestyle

Overcoming my Plus Size Wedding Dress Fears and the My 4 Tips to Help You find YOUR dress!

by Karajuicyjohnson
April 14, 2023 - Updated on February 28, 2025
terms that are not compliments for plus size women
Body Politics

The 6 ‘Compliments’ Plus-Size Women Are Tired of Hearing

by Ashley Blackwell
February 21, 2025 - Updated on February 28, 2025
Opinion

An Open Letter to the Limited Brands and Eloquii

by Marie Denee
March 4, 2013 - Updated on February 21, 2025
plus size ballerinas
Body Image

#BodyPositiveMovement: 5 Plus Size Ballerinas Who’ve Danced Their Way to the Top

by Ashley Blackwell
September 30, 2024 - Updated on January 8, 2025
Next Post
pari-passu-leather-jacket

Pari Passu's New Spring 2021 Collection Focuses on Sophisticated Silhouettes and Precision Fit

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

What are you looking for?

No Result
View All Result

What's Popular Now

  • What plus-size people actually wore to NYFW

    What Plus Size People Actually Wore To New York Fashion Week

    1365 shares
    Share 542 Tweet 339
  • The Dividing Truth Behind B Bellies

    2576 shares
    Share 1009 Tweet 631
  • Plus Size Little White Dress: Your Spring Style? We Just Upgraded It

    398 shares
    Share 154 Tweet 96
  • Black Plus Size Influencers over 40 Who Are Bringing ALL the Style

    485 shares
    Share 192 Tweet 120
  • Top Off That New Outfit with Style: 5 Plus Size Accessory Tips to Shake Up Your Look!

    390 shares
    Share 152 Tweet 95

The Curvy Fashionista is THE plus size fashion media platform dedicated to celebrating plus size folks with curves, confidence, style, and smarts; covering the latest in plus size fashion news.

Company

  • About
  • Team TCF
  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Contact

Info

  • Plus Size FAQs
  • Plus Size Resources
  • Privacy 
  • Sitemap
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
  • Style
  • Shopping
  • Wellness
  • Beauty
  • Lifestyle
  • Write for TCF
  • FAQs
  • Contact

© 2008- 2025 · by TCFStyle Media · All Rights Reserved ·

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.