Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay is a reflection on the interconnection of the Covid-19 pandemic, social inequality, food insecurity and obesity in the global scenario. The pandemic health crisis is bound to an economic and social crisis marked by an increase in unemployment and a decrease in income with a consequent growth of food and nutritional insecurity. The impacts are felt worldwide, although the situation in each country, with regard to the conditions of social inequality and access to food, influences the magnitude of the pandemic consequences. At the same time, we are aware that food and nutritional insecurity is associated with low food quality and higher rates of obesity, which impairs the immune response and predisposes to worse prognosis. Thus, more economically vulnerable populations must face poorer disease outcome, besides the worsening of the economic situation and food and nutritional insecurity and the increase in obesity rates.
Highlights
Within the global framework, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has been devastating a number of sectors, strongly impacting the economy and exacerbating social inequalities among countries and people [1,2,3]
The health crisis generated by the pandemic affects the most vulnerable populations, a condition that exposes them to Food and Nutritional Insecurity (FNI) and to Covid-19 infection susceptibility [4]
In the array of problems that stand behind the risk of complications from Covid-19, the following can be evidenced: (i) the vulnerability of socioeconomic situations that cause impacts on the quality of life and food, as well as of the stress conditions related to uncertainties and poverty [5,6]; (ii) the impairment of food quality, directly affected by impoverishment, fostering the consumption of cheaper, ultra-processed foods with low nutrient quality [7]; (iii) the conditions for the increase in the prevalence of obesity due to the poor quality of food, stress and limitations generated by emerging social problems associated with social confinement, such as sedentary lifestyle [8,9]
Summary
This is an essay carried out based on the review of public official data, technical documents and nonsystematic bibliographic review, with the collection period from June 1, 2020 to April 19, 2021. According to data of the Department of Agriculture, in the last five years, food insecurity has fluctuated around 11% to 12%; in March and April 2020, food insecurity estimates rose to 38% in the USA [33] It is observed, that the scenario involves many nuances to explain the figures presented, but the social inequalities due to the FNI are clearly associated with the risk of infection by Covid-19, exhibiting the biological vulnerability of an unequal human society. In the pre-pandemic Covid-19 scenario, obesity prevalence data in 2016 (% of adults >18 years of age with Body Mass Index BMI≥30kg/m2) were higher in the USA and Brazil These same countries had the highest rates of infection and death by Covid-19 in their populations. The analysis exercise carried out, albeit burgeoning, intends to show what facial masks cannot hide: FNI and social inequalities, aggravated by this pandemic, in addition to the damage caused by the disease itself, expose the social ailments with biological consequences both regarding the risk of infection as well as an aggravating factor of its onset
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