To My Fat Friends, Re: the COVID Vaccine

You. Are Worthy.

Your. Feelings. Are. Valid.

Whether you’ve realized you’re eligible to get the vaccine earlier than you thought, just because you’re in a bigger body.

Whether you’re wrestling with your decision to accept this invitation, when you know the ‘science’ linking higher COVID risk to higher BMI is flawed, that it’s correlational and not causal, and that the BMI is a highly problematic, racist, classist, ableist ratio that was never supposed to be used to measure health, anyway.

It’s a hugely complicated subject, body politics and the COVID vaccine, and it makes sense if you feel an array of conflicting emotions surrounding it. In addition to shame, you might feel other hard feelings, too—anger, rage, frustration, anxiety, fear, self-consciousness, sadness, grief—and these are valid as well. (And things could feel even more confusing if there’s a good deal of relief and excitement in there, too—which also makes so much sense!) Your decision regarding the vaccine is yours. No one else gets to make it, no one else knows exactly what it’s like to be you, feeling what you feel as you contemplate your choice.

My own feeling is that we should all get the vaccine when invited to, because the more vaccinated people, the better. The system might be broken, in terms of the fact that it continues to spread misinformation and faulty conclusions about weight, health and COVID risk—and also, that doesn’t mean you have to step out of it and refrain from doing something that could save your life and others’ lives, just to make a political statement, just to avoid the discomfort of putting yourself first. (Particularly if you’re fat and hold other marginalized identities, if you belong to other groups which have been strongly affected by COVID). Maybe this is one way in which that system finally favors you in its brokenness. There will be plenty more opportunities to make political statements, after all, diet culture and fatphobia being what they are in today’s world—if activism and system disruption are important to you, you have plenty of chances to engage in those activities as a fat person (sadly, too many chances, really).

I believe you deserve protection when it’s offered to you, though. In any body you’re in, any size, any identity, regardless of what others might say or believe about you and your body.

You might feel differently than I do, and of course that’s fine. I’m just here to hold some space and compassion for your complicated experiences and feelings here, and to encourage you to do the same for yourself.