Right now, people are staying home and practicing social distancing in attempts to "flatten the curve" and lessen the spread of COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Loneliness and isolation have been inordinately challenging for many folks — and could intensify as time goes on. Fortunately, the internet has produced many ways to find laughter amid the bleak new landscape we find ourselves in; yes, even the coronavirus has been turned into a meme or two. But between photos of cute pets or tweets about exes sliding into DMs, there’s one "joke" that people are making over and over that's not really funny at all. In fact, it’s pretty harmful.

"The quarantine 15 is the new freshman 15." "Gonna gain 'The COVID 19' after eating all my snacks." You've probably seen some variation of this meme on your Twitter timeline, as many people have arrived at the same choice of words. Whether it contains a SpongeBob gif or a photo series of Keanu Reeves, the punchline of the joke is pretty much the same, and it goes something like this: "I have an abundance of food right now. I’m going to eat it all in a short amount of time. I’m going to gain weight."

Laughter can be a great form of coping during difficult times; it's why memes can thrive even during the most challenging situations. But it’s worth remembering that jokes like this are harmful to everyone as they contain underlying themes of fatphobia, and can be especially triggering to people with eating disorders, many of whom are already struggling with triggers in self-isolation.

Why might these jokes be so harmful right now?

The most obvious problem with jokes about the "quarantine 15" or "the COVID 19" is that gaining weight is framed as an inherently bad thing — an idea that’s steeped in fatphobia. While there have certainly been waves of progress in body positivity (as well as body neutrality, or the idea that it’s okay if you just feel neutral about your body) in recent years, society is still poisoned by the idea that being fat (or gaining weight) is "bad" and losing weight is "good." It’s a message that many of us are taught from a young age, and is reinforced throughout our lives via the media and pop culture. That harmful idea is the driving force behind these memes, and it sends a dangerous message that certain bodies are undesirable — which is simply untrue.

For the 30 million people who deal with an eating disorder in the U.S., these types of jokes can also be incredibly triggering. "Someone with an eating disorder may struggle with binge eating, restricting food, and/or food anxiety," Maria Rago, PhD, clinical psychologist and president of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), tells Allure. "Since they have strong conflicts about eating, it leaves them unsure that eating is okay…. [They] may find it difficult to decide what to eat and how much."