Health Law and the COVID-19 related Stigma and Discrimination

The realization of the right to health and the provision of public access tohealth care are essential to the enjoyment of other human rights. Becausehealth enables people to have an equal fair opportunity to achieve their goalsand pursue their life plans. Stigma and discrimination have been prohibitedas one of the key barriers to access health care, and a factor in increasinginequality in health outcomes. One of the adverse consequences of theCOVID-19 pandemic is its association with social stigma anddiscrimination. In this study, the concept of stigma is described and thecauses of COVID-19 stigma are analyzed, and also the strategies to deal withit are discussed. In answer to the question of the causes of the COVID-19stigma, it can be said that the stigma is caused due to the defensivemechanism and cognitive adaptation that humans adopt in order to avoidsocial contact and interactions with the carrier of this infectious pathogen.Fear of violation of privacy and disclosure of information on the one hand,and stigma caused by the disease on the other hand, due to the feeling ofworthlessness and isolation in the labeled person can avoid him fromreferring to care and treatment services; This matter not only can increasethe risk of complications and death in the patients, but also not receivingmedical care by the patient or discrimination in providing health care to himcan cause the spread of infection in society and endanger public health.Informing community members in order to eliminate misconceptions andchange attitude is recommended as the most important way to deal withstigma and prevent the spread of disease in society.