I rang my mum straight away … could hear my fear. I felt scared for my family and it just made me fearful of what is to come.
#One coronavirus total lockdown lessons full
Then looked at my phone and full of corona news … Today was the big announcement from Boris (Friday, March 20) ‘to stay in’! Even though he had been saying this all week, the tone and manner of the broadcast was so scary and serious. I didn’t sleep well last night, didn’t help I watched the news before going to sleep. Here is a snapshot from her written diary: In the early days of the crisis, she hid her fears from her children. This is crazy when they are so dependent on bank and agency workers who move around.īeth, 35, is a mother of two young children who lives in a busy city. It’s also weird they aren’t testing staff unless they’re symptomatic. Can’t help but think a lack of information is creating fear amongst staff. It’s also galling that they have told staff there is no PPE when clearly there is.
But the whole episode was worrying, particularly the crappy surgical mask and aprons we are provided. Fortunately, the patient was made stable and went to surgery for another issue. I did find it amusing – we’re looking at the doctors wanting their protection and they are looking at the consultant wanting his! It did feel like a farce. Shutterstock/kovop58Įmma said the equipment “magically turned up” after the doctors took this stand but said the sight of them all in surgical gowns, helmets and visors “did verge on the ridiculous”. It was quite sobering when a rapid response was called and the doctors refused to enter the cubicle without FFP3 masks, blue gown and visor.Ī lack of PPE is a source of constant worry for healthcare workers. We may have all been exposed, as these patients are suspected to have COVID-19. There were no clinical indications they were potentially infected on admission and had been nursed without PPE for two days.
I was working on a ‘clean’ ward and four of the patients were found to potentially be infected. On my shifts over the previous weekend, it became apparent how unprepared we are. In a diary entry written in mid-march, Emma foresaw issues with PPE in the NHS. Like many key workers, Emma is also juggling family life and caring responsibilities. March – first daysĮmma is in her late 30s, and a frontline health worker in a rural location in Wales. For some, the crisis has been an opportunity, but for others, who are already in a disadvantaged position, it is a very frightening experience. Reading the entries, what becomes clear as the lockdown is eased is that this pandemic has been – and will continue to be – experienced in very different ways across society. I feel as though I am on a journey with the participants as we move through the crisis. While some of the documents have made me cry, especially those from already vulnerable people, others have made me laugh and have been a joy to read. As the weeks have gone by and more and more people have signed up, I’ve realised this project isn’t just a research study to understand how society is being made and remade – it is also providing hope and acting as a cathartic coping tool for people.
Like many of us, I was wondering how I could be of use at this time, do my bit in the crisis and make the most of my skills. I have been studying and working as a sociologist for nearly 20 years and most of my research so far has looked at how young men experience education, gender roles and social inequality. When I began this project in March, I did not expect the study to prove so popular. These people come from a range of backgrounds.
So far, the study has recruited 164 participants, from 12 countries, aged between 11 and 87. Entries take a variety of forms, such as handwritten or word-processed diaries, blogs, social media posts, photos, videos, memes and other submissions like songs, poems, shopping lists, dream logs and artwork. So in early March I began the CoronaDiaries – a sociological study which aimed to highlight the real voices and the everyday experiences of the pandemic by collecting the accounts of people up and down the UK, before, during and after the crisis.įrom the frontline health worker concerned about PPE and exposure to COVID-19, to the furloughed engineer worried about his mental health, these are the voices of the pandemic. As a sociologist, I was keen to hear how people were experiencing this totally new way of life. Now, the coronavirus pandemic, and the impact of the lockdown, have left many people isolated and scared about what the future might bring. In other words, it is a glimpse at our state of mind. It’s a place to record our most intimate thoughts and worries about the world around us. A diary is by its very nature an intensely personal thing.
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