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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

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The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Persuasive Essay Guide

Persuasive Essay About Covid19

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid19 | Examples & Tips

11 min read

Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Here are the steps to help you write a persuasive essay on this topic, along with an example essay:

Step 1: Choose a Specific Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement should clearly state your position on a specific aspect of COVID-19. It should be debatable and clear. For example:

Step 2: Research and Gather Information

Collect reliable and up-to-date information from reputable sources to support your thesis statement. This may include statistics, expert opinions, and scientific studies. For instance:

COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness data
Information on vaccine mandates in different countries
Expert statements from health organizations like the WHO or CDC

Step 3: Outline Your Essay

Create a clear and organized outline to structure your essay. A persuasive essay typically follows this structure:

Introduction
Background Information
Body Paragraphs (with supporting evidence)
Counterarguments (addressing opposing views)

Step 4: Write the Introduction

In the introduction, grab your reader's attention and present your thesis statement. For example:

Step 5: Provide Background Information

Offer context and background information to help your readers understand the issue better. For instance:

Step 6: Develop Body Paragraphs

Each body paragraph should present a single point or piece of evidence that supports your thesis statement. Use clear topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. Here's an example:

Step 7: Address Counterarguments

Acknowledge opposing viewpoints and refute them with strong counterarguments. This demonstrates that you've considered different perspectives. For example:

Step 8: Write the Conclusion

Summarize your main points and restate your thesis statement in the conclusion. End with a strong call to action or thought-provoking statement. For instance:

Step 9: Revise and Proofread

Edit your essay for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. Ensure that your argument flows logically.

Step 10: Cite Your Sources

Include proper citations and a bibliography page to give credit to your sources.

Remember to adjust your approach and arguments based on your target audience and the specific angle you want to take in your persuasive essay about COVID-19.

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Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid19

When writing a persuasive essay about the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to consider how you want to present your argument. To help you get started, here are some example essays for you to read:

Check out some more PDF examples below:

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Pandemic

Sample Of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 In The Philippines - Example

If you're in search of a compelling persuasive essay on business, don't miss out on our “ persuasive essay about business ” blog!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Vaccine

Covid19 vaccines are one of the ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but they have been a source of controversy. Different sides argue about the benefits or dangers of the new vaccines. Whatever your point of view is, writing a persuasive essay about it is a good way of organizing your thoughts and persuading others.

A persuasive essay about the Covid-19 vaccine could consider the benefits of getting vaccinated as well as the potential side effects.

Below are some examples of persuasive essays on getting vaccinated for Covid-19.

Covid19 Vaccine Persuasive Essay

Persuasive Essay on Covid Vaccines

Interested in thought-provoking discussions on abortion? Read our persuasive essay about abortion blog to eplore arguments!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration

Covid19 has drastically changed the way people interact in schools, markets, and workplaces. In short, it has affected all aspects of life. However, people have started to learn to live with Covid19.

Writing a persuasive essay about it shouldn't be stressful. Read the sample essay below to get idea for your own essay about Covid19 integration.

Persuasive Essay About Working From Home During Covid19

Searching for the topic of Online Education? Our persuasive essay about online education is a must-read.

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19

Covid-19 has been an ever-evolving issue, with new developments and discoveries being made on a daily basis.

Writing an argumentative essay about such an issue is both interesting and challenging. It allows you to evaluate different aspects of the pandemic, as well as consider potential solutions.

Here are some examples of argumentative essays on Covid19.

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 Sample

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 With Introduction Body and Conclusion

Looking for a persuasive take on the topic of smoking? You'll find it all related arguments in out Persuasive Essay About Smoking blog!

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Do you need to prepare a speech about Covid19 and need examples? We have them for you!

Persuasive speeches about Covid-19 can provide the audience with valuable insights on how to best handle the pandemic. They can be used to advocate for specific changes in policies or simply raise awareness about the virus.

Check out some examples of persuasive speeches on Covid-19:

Persuasive Speech About Covid-19 Example

Persuasive Speech About Vaccine For Covid-19

You can also read persuasive essay examples on other topics to master your persuasive techniques!

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19 requires a thoughtful approach to present your arguments effectively.

Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling persuasive essay on this topic:

Choose a Specific Angle

Start by narrowing down your focus. COVID-19 is a broad topic, so selecting a specific aspect or issue related to it will make your essay more persuasive and manageable. For example, you could focus on vaccination, public health measures, the economic impact, or misinformation.

Provide Credible Sources

Support your arguments with credible sources such as scientific studies, government reports, and reputable news outlets. Reliable sources enhance the credibility of your essay.

Use Persuasive Language

Employ persuasive techniques, such as ethos (establishing credibility), pathos (appealing to emotions), and logos (using logic and evidence). Use vivid examples and anecdotes to make your points relatable.

Organize Your Essay

Structure your essay involves creating a persuasive essay outline and establishing a logical flow from one point to the next. Each paragraph should focus on a single point, and transitions between paragraphs should be smooth and logical.

Emphasize Benefits

Highlight the benefits of your proposed actions or viewpoints. Explain how your suggestions can improve public health, safety, or well-being. Make it clear why your audience should support your position.

Use Visuals -H3

Incorporate graphs, charts, and statistics when applicable. Visual aids can reinforce your arguments and make complex data more accessible to your readers.

Call to Action

End your essay with a strong call to action. Encourage your readers to take a specific step or consider your viewpoint. Make it clear what you want them to do or think after reading your essay.

Revise and Edit

Proofread your essay for grammar, spelling, and clarity. Make sure your arguments are well-structured and that your writing flows smoothly.

Seek Feedback

Have someone else read your essay to get feedback. They may offer valuable insights and help you identify areas where your persuasive techniques can be improved.

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Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19

Here are some persuasive essay topics on COVID-19:

The Importance of Vaccination Mandates for COVID-19 Control
Balancing Public Health and Personal Freedom During a Pandemic
The Economic Impact of Lockdowns vs. Public Health Benefits
The Role of Misinformation in Fueling Vaccine Hesitancy
Remote Learning vs. In-Person Education: What's Best for Students?
The Ethics of Vaccine Distribution: Prioritizing Vulnerable Populations
The Mental Health Crisis Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems
Global Cooperation vs. Vaccine Nationalism in Fighting the Pandemic
The Future of Telemedicine: Expanding Healthcare Access Post-COVID-19

In search of more inspiring topics for your next persuasive essay? Our persuasive essay topics blog has plenty of ideas!

To sum it up,

You have read good sample essays and got some helpful tips. You now have the tools you needed to write a persuasive essay about Covid-19. So don't let the doubts stop you, start writing!

If you need professional writing help, don't worry! We've got that for you as well.

MyPerfectWords.com is a professional essay writing service that can help you craft an excellent persuasive essay on Covid-19. Our experienced essay writer will create a well-structured, insightful paper in no time!

So don't hesitate and get in touch with our persuasive essay writing service today!

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any ethical considerations when writing a persuasive essay about covid-19.

Yes, there are ethical considerations when writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19. It's essential to ensure the information is accurate, not contribute to misinformation, and be sensitive to the pandemic's impact on individuals and communities. Additionally, respecting diverse viewpoints and emphasizing public health benefits can promote ethical communication.

What impact does COVID-19 have on society?

The impact of COVID-19 on society is far-reaching. It has led to job and economic losses, an increase in stress and mental health disorders, and changes in education systems. It has also had a negative effect on social interactions, as people have been asked to limit their contact with others.

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Keep reading

I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

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Read More: The Family Time the Pandemic Stole

But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

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What Life Was Like for Students in the Pandemic Year

In this video, Navajo student Miles Johnson shares how he experienced the stress and anxiety of schools shutting down last year. Miles’ teacher shared his experience and those of her other students in a recent piece for Education Week. In these short essays below, teacher Claire Marie Grogan’s 11th grade students at Oceanside High School on Long Island, N.Y., describe their pandemic experiences. Their writings have been slightly edited for clarity. Read Grogan’s essay .

“Hours Staring at Tiny Boxes on the Screen”

By Kimberly Polacco, 16

I stare at my blank computer screen, trying to find the motivation to turn it on, but my finger flinches every time it hovers near the button. I instead open my curtains. It is raining outside, but it does not matter, I will not be going out there for the rest of the day. The sound of pounding raindrops contributes to my headache enough to make me turn on my computer in hopes that it will give me something to drown out the noise. But as soon as I open it up, I feel the weight of the world crash upon my shoulders.

Each 42-minute period drags on by. I spend hours upon hours staring at tiny boxes on a screen, one of which my exhausted face occupies, and attempt to retain concepts that have been presented to me through this device. By the time I have the freedom of pressing the “leave” button on my last Google Meet of the day, my eyes are heavy and my legs feel like mush from having not left my bed since I woke up.

Tomorrow arrives, except this time here I am inside of a school building, interacting with my first period teacher face to face. We talk about our favorite movies and TV shows to stream as other kids pile into the classroom. With each passing period I accumulate more and more of these tiny meaningless conversations everywhere I go with both teachers and students. They may not seem like much, but to me they are everything because I know that the next time I am expected to report to school, I will be trapped in the bubble of my room counting down the hours until I can sit down in my freshly sanitized wooden desk again.

“My Only Parent Essentially on Her Death Bed”

By Nick Ingargiola, 16

My mom had COVID-19 for ten weeks. She got sick during the first month school buildings were shut. The difficulty of navigating an online classroom was already overwhelming, and when mixed with my only parent essentially on her death bed, it made it unbearable. Focusing on schoolwork was impossible, and watching my mother struggle to lift up her arm broke my heart.

My mom has been through her fair share of diseases from pancreatic cancer to seizures and even as far as a stroke that paralyzed her entire left side. It is safe to say she has been through a lot. The craziest part is you would never know it. She is the strongest and most positive person I’ve ever met. COVID hit her hard. Although I have watched her go through life and death multiple times, I have never seen her so physically and mentally drained.

I initially was overjoyed to complete my school year in the comfort of my own home, but once my mom got sick, I couldn’t handle it. No one knows what it’s like to pretend like everything is OK until they are forced to. I would wake up at 8 after staying up until 5 in the morning pondering the possibility of losing my mother. She was all I had. I was forced to turn my camera on and float in the fake reality of being fine although I wasn’t. The teachers tried to keep the class engaged by obligating the students to participate. This was dreadful. I didn’t want to talk. I had to hide the distress in my voice. If only the teachers understood what I was going through. I was hesitant because I didn’t want everyone to know that the virus that was infecting and killing millions was knocking on my front door.

After my online classes, I was required to finish an immense amount of homework while simultaneously hiding my sadness so that my mom wouldn’t worry about me. She was already going through a lot. There was no reason to add me to her list of worries. I wasn’t even able to give her a hug. All I could do was watch.

“The Way of Staying Sane”

By Lynda Feustel, 16

Entering year two of the pandemic is strange. It barely seems a day since last March, but it also seems like a lifetime. As an only child and introvert, shutting down my world was initially simple and relatively easy. My friends and I had been super busy with the school play, and while I was sad about it being canceled, I was struggling a lot during that show and desperately needed some time off.

As March turned to April, virtual school began, and being alone really set in. I missed my friends and us being together. The isolation felt real with just my parents and me, even as we spent time together. My friends and I began meeting on Facetime every night to watch TV and just be together in some way. We laughed at insane jokes we made and had homework and therapy sessions over Facetime and grew closer through digital and literal walls.

The summer passed with in-person events together, and the virus faded into the background for a little while. We went to the track and the beach and hung out in people’s backyards.

Then school came for us in a more nasty way than usual. In hybrid school we were separated. People had jobs, sports, activities, and quarantines. Teachers piled on work, and the virus grew more present again. The group text put out hundreds of messages a day while the Facetimes came to a grinding halt, and meeting in person as a group became more of a rarity. Being together on video and in person was the way of staying sane.

In a way I am in a similar place to last year, working and looking for some change as we enter the second year of this mess.

“In History Class, Reports of Heightening Cases”

By Vivian Rose, 16

I remember the moment my freshman year English teacher told me about the young writers’ conference at Bread Loaf during my sophomore year. At first, I didn’t want to apply, the deadline had passed, but for some strange reason, the directors of the program extended it another week. It felt like it was meant to be. It was in Vermont in the last week of May when the flowers have awakened and the sun is warm.

I submitted my work, and two weeks later I got an email of my acceptance. I screamed at the top of my lungs in the empty house; everyone was out, so I was left alone to celebrate my small victory. It was rare for them to admit sophomores. Usually they accept submissions only from juniors and seniors.

That was the first week of February 2020. All of a sudden, there was some talk about this strange virus coming from China. We thought nothing of it. Every night, I would fall asleep smiling, knowing that I would be able to go to the exact conference that Robert Frost attended for 42 years.

Then, as if overnight, it seemed the virus had swung its hand and had gripped parts of the country. Every newscast was about the disease. Every day in history, we would look at the reports of heightening cases and joke around that this could never become a threat as big as Dr. Fauci was proposing. Then, March 13th came around--it was the last day before the world seemed to shut down. Just like that, Bread Loaf would vanish from my grasp.

“One Day Every Day Won’t Be As Terrible”

By Nick Wollweber, 17

COVID created personal problems for everyone, some more serious than others, but everyone had a struggle.

As the COVID lock-down took hold, the main thing weighing on my mind was my oldest brother, Joe, who passed away in January 2019 unexpectedly in his sleep. Losing my brother was a complete gut punch and reality check for me at 14 and 15 years old. 2019 was a year of struggle, darkness, sadness, frustration. I didn’t want to learn after my brother had passed, but I had to in order to move forward and find my new normal.

Routine and always having things to do and places to go is what let me cope in the year after Joe died. Then COVID came and gave me the option to let up and let down my guard. I struggled with not wanting to take care of personal hygiene. That was the beginning of an underlying mental problem where I wouldn’t do things that were necessary for everyday life.

My “coping routine” that got me through every day and week the year before was gone. COVID wasn’t beneficial to me, but it did bring out the true nature of my mental struggles and put a name to it. Since COVID, I have been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. I began taking antidepressants and going to therapy a lot more.

COVID made me realize that I’m not happy with who I am and that I needed to change. I’m still not happy with who I am. I struggle every day, but I am working towards a goal that one day every day won’t be as terrible.

Coverage of social and emotional learning is supported in part by a grant from the NoVo Foundation, at www.novofoundation.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage. A version of this article appeared in the March 31, 2021 edition of Education Week as What Life Was Like for Students in the Pandemic Year

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How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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Seven short essays about life during the pandemic

The boston book festival's at home community writing project invites area residents to describe their experiences during this unprecedented time..

My alarm sounds at 8:15 a.m. I open my eyes and take a deep breath. I wiggle my toes and move my legs. I do this religiously every morning. Today, marks day 74 of staying at home.

My mornings are filled with reading biblical scripture, meditation, breathing in the scents of a hanging eucalyptus branch in the shower, and making tea before I log into my computer to work. After an hour-and-a-half Zoom meeting, I decided to take a long walk to the post office and grab a fresh bouquet of burnt orange ranunculus flowers. I embrace the warm sun beaming on my face. I feel joy. I feel at peace.

I enter my apartment and excessively wash my hands and face. I pour a glass of iced kombucha. I sit at my table and look at the text message on my phone. My coworker writes that she is thinking of me during this difficult time. She must be referring to the Amy Cooper incident. I learn shortly that she is not.

I Google Minneapolis and see his name: George Floyd. And just like that a simple and beautiful day transitions into a day of sorrow.

Nakia Hill, Boston

It was a wobbly, yet solemn little procession: three masked mourners and a canine. Beginning in Kenmore Square, at David and Sue Horner’s condo, it proceeded up Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

S. Sue Horner died on Good Friday, April 10, in the Year of the Virus. Sue did not die of the virus but her parting was hemmed by it: no gatherings to mark the passing of this splendid human being.

David devised a send-off nevertheless. On April 23rd, accompanied by his daughter and son-in-law, he set out for Old South Church. David led, bearing the urn. His daughter came next, holding her phone aloft, speaker on, through which her brother in Illinois played the bagpipes for the length of the procession, its soaring thrum infusing the Mall. Her husband came last with Melon, their golden retriever.

I unlocked the empty church and led the procession into the columbarium. David drew the urn from its velvet cover, revealing a golden vessel inset with incandescent tiles. We lifted the urn into the niche, prayed, recited Psalm 23, and shared some words.

It was far too small for the luminous “Dr. Sue”, but what we could manage in the Year of the Virus.

Nancy S. Taylor, Boston

On April 26, 2020, our household was a bustling home for four people. Our two sons, ages 18 and 22, have a lot of energy. We are among the lucky ones. I can work remotely. Our food and shelter are not at risk.

As I write this a week later, it is much quieter here.

On April 27, our older son, an EMT, transported a COVID-19 patient to the ER. He left home to protect my delicate health and became ill with the virus a week later.

On April 29, my husband’s 95-year-old father had a stroke. My husband left immediately to be with his 90-year-old mother near New York City and is now preparing for his father’s discharge from the hospital. Rehab people will come to the house; going to a facility would be too dangerous.

My husband just called me to describe today’s hospital visit. The doctors had warned that although his father had regained the ability to speak, he could only repeat what was said to him.

“It’s me,” said my husband.

“It’s me,” said my father-in-law.

“I love you,” said my husband.

“I love you,” said my father-in-law.

“Sooooooooo much,” said my father-in-law.

Lucia Thompson, Wayland

Would racism exist if we were blind?

I felt his eyes bore into me as I walked through the grocery store. At first, I thought nothing of it. With the angst in the air attributable to COVID, I understood the anxiety-provoking nature of feeling as though your 6-foot bubble had burst. So, I ignored him and maintained my distance. But he persisted, glaring at my face, squinting to see who I was underneath the mask. This time I looked back, when he yelled, in my mother tongue, for me to go back to my country.

In shock, I just laughed. How could he tell what I was under my mask? Or see anything through the sunglasses he was wearing inside? It baffled me. I laughed at the irony that he would use my own language against me, that he knew enough to guess where I was from in some version of culturally competent racism. I laughed because dealing with the truth behind that comment generated a sadness in me that was too much to handle. If not now, then when will we be together?

So I ask again, would racism exist if we were blind?

Faizah Shareef, Boston

My Family is “Out” There

But I am “in” here. Life is different now “in” Assisted Living since the deadly COVID-19 arrived. Now the staff, employees, and all 100 residents have our temperatures taken daily. Everyone else, including my family, is “out” there. People like the hairdresser are really missed — with long straight hair and masks, we don’t even recognize ourselves.

Since mid-March we are in quarantine “in” our rooms with meals served. Activities are practically non-existent. We can sit on the back patio 6 feet apart, wearing masks, do exercises there, chat, and walk nearby. Nothing inside. Hopefully June will improve.

My family is “out” there — somewhere! Most are working from home (or Montana). Hopefully an August wedding will happen, but unfortunately, I may still be “in” here.

From my window I wave to my son “out” there. Recently, when my daughter visited, I opened the window “in” my second-floor room and could see and hear her perfectly “out” there. Next time she will bring a chair so we can have an “in” and “out” conversation all day, or until we run out of words.

Barbara Anderson, Raynham

My boyfriend Marcial lives in Boston, and I live in New York City. We had been doing the long-distance thing pretty successfully until coronavirus hit. In mid-March, I was furloughed from my temp job, Marcial began working remotely, and New York started shutting down. I went to Boston to stay with Marcial.

We are opposites in many ways, but we share a love of food. The kitchen has been the center of quarantine life —and also quarantine problems.

Marcial and I have gone from eating out and cooking/grocery shopping for each other during our periodic visits to cooking/grocery shopping with each other all the time. We’ve argued over things like the proper way to make rice and what greens to buy for salad. Our habits are deeply rooted in our upbringing and individual cultures (Filipino immigrant and American-born Chinese, hence the strong rice opinions).

On top of the mundane issues, we’ve also dealt with a flooded kitchen (resulting in cockroaches) and a mandoline accident leading to an ER visit. Marcial and I have spent quarantine navigating how to handle the unexpected and how to integrate our lifestyles. We’ve been eating well along the way.

Melissa Lee, Waltham

It’s 3 a.m. and my dog Rikki just gave me a worried look. Up again?

“I can’t sleep,” I say. I flick the light, pick up “Non-Zero Probabilities.” But the words lay pinned to the page like swatted flies. I watch new “Killing Eve” episodes, play old Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats songs. Still night.

We are — what? — 12 agitated weeks into lockdown, and now this. The thing that got me was Chauvin’s sunglasses. Perched nonchalantly on his head, undisturbed, as if he were at a backyard BBQ. Or anywhere other than kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, on his life. And Floyd was a father, as we all now know, having seen his daughter Gianna on Stephen Jackson’s shoulders saying “Daddy changed the world.”

Precious child. I pray, safeguard her.

Rikki has her own bed. But she won’t leave me. A Goddess of Protection. She does that thing dogs do, hovers increasingly closely the more agitated I get. “I’m losing it,” I say. I know. And like those weighted gravity blankets meant to encourage sleep, she drapes her 70 pounds over me, covering my restless heart with safety.

As if daybreak, or a prayer, could bring peace today.

Kirstan Barnett, Watertown

Until June 30, send your essay (200 words or less) about life during COVID-19 via bostonbookfest.org . Some essays will be published on the festival’s blog and some will appear in The Boston Globe.

Coronavirus: What students have learned living in pandemic: Student Voices winners

As students settle into their new routines, the appreciation for many things taken for granted becomes more evident. The once dreaded chore of walking your dog or countless complaints of hectic school schedule are now simply not that bad. The freedom to leave your home and spend time with friends is replaced with face masks, social distancing rules and sheltering in place.

In this month's Asbury Park Press Student Voices Essay and Video contest, we posed the question: What is the most important lesson you learned from having to live through the coronavirus pandemic?

Below are the winning essays and videos for May in the Asbury Park Press Student Voices contest.

First place winner: Grades 7-8

Simple Strolls

When everything was normal in my life, I failed to appreciate the little things in my life. For example, going on walks with my dog was like a chore without pay. To me, it was forced labor. My dog would tug on the leash, and I would try to stand my ground as we awkwardly avoided what seemed like thousands of happy walkers with their barking dogs. People would walk past us, and we would exchange smiles, but it was very boring because I knew there was something they didn't. There is a better way to use my time, I would think: studying, doing homework, exercising, etc. However, once COVID-19, the virus that changed life as we all know it entered the scene like an unwanted guest, I was exposed to another perspective…

7:00 AM Thursday / Day Three of Distance Learning

“Chloe,” my mom yelled, “Hurry, we have to walk the dog before breakfast!”

“Coming,” I replied while I trudged down the stairs. As we walked out the door, I noticed the tension in the air.

Every walker was avoiding everyone else by staying six feet away. No smiles were exchanged. (And even if there were, who would know, they were covered by masks.)

My dog frolicked along like a bad deer impersonator while my mom and I lumbered down the streets. The fog made the walk more depressing. At the end of the walk, while we slumped down my driveway towards the back door, I began to miss the walks that I once hated.

Walking may not seem like much to you, but the coronavirus has taught me to enjoy the little things in life. Before, typical walks with my dog were a bore, but once the luxury was taken away, I began to miss the most boring part of my average day. Luckily, everyone is staying safe. However, when everything returns to normal, I will never take for granted the fun strolls with my dog. I will enjoy the tiny part of my average day.

Chloe LaForge

Spring Lake Heights Elementary School

Teacher: Nicole Kirk

First place video winner:

First place winner: grades 9-12.

Hot Air Balloon

My room is filled with the carnage of apathy. Three empty water bottles slump underneath my dresser. My drawers are neat for once because I’ve been wearing only pajama pants and the same two shirts the entire quarantine. My alarm clock is the only thing that resembles normality, and even that is different. Before this pandemic, I had never used the snooze button. Now, I use it every day.

I’ve always prided myself on being hardworking and capable. If only I had more time, was how my theme song went. More time to cook, more time to read, more time to have the fun you need, my brain would croon to itself. Now I have endless hours to fill with whatever I please. And yes, I’ve cooked meals for my family and finished five books during the quarantine, but I haven’t been having fun. I do these things because I feel like I would be nothing if I didn’t, like I would be incomplete. Because I’m hardworking and capable, but ever since this pandemic I’ve wanted to do nothing but sleep.

During quarantine, I’ve realized that I’m a hot air balloon, filled with hopeful gusts and shiny blue ideas. I need a tether to keep me from soaring away through the clouds to the beckoning land of nostalgic poetry and YouTube videos about eighteenth-century European monarchs. That tether is studying with my friends, visiting a teacher during my lunch break, practicing for the spring musical so late that I have no choice but to get my homework done right after school. I miss feeling like I have something important to do and goals to achieve. Schools everywhere are adjusting to our “new normal” with standardized testing scores waived and school days reduced to only a few video chats. I feel like someone ripped a hole in me. My hot air balloon is getting battered by the waves of uncertainty, and it feels like only a matter of time before it sinks into the thick grayish water.

If I’ve learned anything during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that I need the hectic normality of my everyday life. I need my friends and my teachers and those homework assignments that never seem to end. Because without them, I don’t remember how to fly.

Kimberly Koscinski

Point Pleasant Borough High School

Teacher: Shannon Orosz

Second place winner: Grades 7-8

Use Your Time Wisely

2020 has been a rollercoaster of events, emotions and some unpleasant surprises. This pandemic has deprived us of many things we took for granted, such as leaving your house or meeting your friends. It shut down businesses and schools, and it made the busiest cities standstill for the first time. During this pandemic, I learned that we should never take what privileges and opportunities we have for granted; and also to enjoy the little things that life has to offer, such as spending time with friends or going out with your family.

Before the pandemic, back in 2019, I used to take for granted my ability to go to school, to get out of my house, and do things on my own. There were countless times when I could have spent more time with friends and family, but instead, I chose to hide away in my room. Sometimes I wish I had gone out more, that I had enjoyed my free time better rather than just looking at a phone screen. It's an understatement to say that school is underrated. We never take time to appreciate how school affects our lives, and how the teachers and classmates influence us. I indeed enjoy having my own time to do work. However, nothing will ever compare to going to a classroom to learn, and having a teacher explain the topic in detail.

I am happy that I've gotten more time to spend with my family. I'm connecting with them more than I had ever before since it was rare for all of us to spend time together. I've also learned some things about myself; there are some things I'm not proud of, but I'm happy I got to know what they were. Now, I can improve myself and my character to be a better person.

This pandemic certainly feels like the end of the world. Still, I know that if everyone follows instructions and stays quarantined, we will be able to overcome it. We don't know what the future has to bring, but hopefully, it will be better than what has already happened. I think it's important to understand that despite having a fortune, money could never buy time, so don't waste it.

Maria Reyes-Hernandez

G Harold Antrim Elementary School

Teacher: Stephanie Woit

Second place video winner:

Second place winner: grades 9-12.

Lessons In Quarantine

It's quite a strange thing to think about, honestly. Everyday we always consider what we could really do if we had just one more hour of time on our hands. What we could achieve with an extra day of personal work. Yet, in a time like today when we have been suddenly thrust into having so much free time stuck at home, we realize just how much of that time we actually had and how much of it we took for granted. If there was anything I learned from my newly awarded hours of contemplation during quarantine, it's this: we should never take our time for granted. Start that personal project you’ve been wanting to head off. Go out on that weekend evening and let yourself unwind. Step back from those obscene work hours and take some time for other things.

Let me paint you a picture. Throw away the quarantine for a second and place yourself in the shoes of what we used to know as normalcy. It's a school night, you’ve got a test in a couple of days and, honestly, you know you’re a shoe in for at the very least a B+. Dinner is being cooked in the kitchen a few doors down from your room, and right as you just settled into bed for a nightly study session, you get a text. Your friend wants you to go party with them tomorrow night. You freeze up for a moment. While parties have never been your scene, you have some small spike in confidence and almost type out a response. However, that burst quickly subsides, and you decline. After all, there'll be plenty more parties and plenty more chances to go out, right? Well, while that might be true, it's a mindset that sets us up countless missed opportunities. Take that decision, and now put it into perspective.

What if that was the last chance you had to ever see your friends in person again? What if that was your last chance to get some time out of your house for two, three, four months? With all that in mind, would you still stay behind? Time is fixed. We only have a certain amount of time, ever, making it just as precious as life itself, something we should seldom take for granted.

Gregory Rivera

Point Pleasant Borough High School

Teacher: Mrs. Orosz

Third place winner: Grades 7-8

The Little Things

The sound of a bell. A noisy hallway. Twenty-two of your peers fills the empty desks. Six incredible teachers, you see throughout the course of your day. It is almost hard to even imagine how a routine so basic can change in an instant. Now no bell. No one surrounds you. You see your favorite teachers through webcams and videos. Your fingers ache from clicking on the keys and you get a headache from the pixels on your screen. After eight long hours of work, all you want to do is see your friend, be able to hug your family and be with the people who matter most. Apparently, that seems like a lot to ask for.

Over these past two months of being stuck inside our homes, we have come to appreciate many things that we take for granted in this world. Now everyone is thinking the same thing, “When can I leave the house”, or, “Is this ever going to be over.” The truth is, it will be over someday. We will all be able to be together again like we used to. There’s no reason for complaining about being in your own home with the people who love you. I have learned to appreciate the little things in life. Because when we can finally go to stores, and eat at our favorite restaurants, you will have a new respect for all the little things that surround you.

Wherever you go on social media, or out on a run, you see these people who completely ignore the rules of doctors and the government who are ultimately trying to keep us safe. I would have never thought that two words could have such an impact on people. Stay home. It is maybe the simplest task that any one person could carry out. But it seems so impossible to people. Stay home with the people who love you. Be with the people who matter. You can go without a haircut or a trip to the gym. Enjoy the little things. An afternoon walk with your dog, or a running workout. The little things. Those are what matters most.

Brady Durkac

Memorial Middle School

Teacher: Lynn Thompson

Third place video winner:

Third place winners: grades 9-12.

Take control

What is the most important lesson you learned from having to live through the coronavirus pandemic?

The most important lesson I have learned from having to live through the coronavirus pandemic is that not everything goes your way. But no matter what’s happening, you must take control of the situation. That means get your work done, deal with what’s being thrown at you in these times, make the most out of it, and never lose your motivation. I find it helpful to invest as much energy as I can into each new day because once this is all over, I don’t want to look back on what I did during quarantine and regret it.

At the beginning of quarantine, I was miserable, sluggish, bored out of my mind, and sad. I still made the time to deal with the hectic load of work that was thrown my way while also finding the time to enjoy myself by doing what I want. I started working out, making music, editing videos, and watching new shows. I have learned to dedicate the beginning of each day to being productive, getting work done, doing chores, laundry, and cleaning the house, etc. By the end of the night, I am chilling and doing whatever I’m in the mood to do.

For the time being, I’m gonna keep doing what I can. I’m just waiting till I can be back with the boys and enjoy the last bit of the time I have before college begins. I don’t know what new things each day is going to bring me. But if this pandemic taught me anything it’s to do what I can, and to focus on the things that are in my control.

Rodney Wotton

Christian Brothers Academy

Teacher: Despina Manatos

Honorable Mention Winners

Logan Mesh, Grade 7, Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School, Teacher: Cassandra Capadona

Maddie Scalabrini, Grade 8, Memorial Middle School, Teacher: Lynn Thompson

Tatum Serett, Grade 8, The Seashore School, Teacher: Sharon Villapiano

Reese Willis, Grade 8, Manasquan Elementary School, Teacher: Andrea Trischitta

Brian Stefanski, Grade 12, Christian Brothers Academy, Teacher: Despina Manatos

Chris Coleman, Grade 12, Christian Brothers Academy, Teacher: Despina Manatos

Grades 9-12

Sydney Cole, Grade 11, Point Pleasant Borough High School, Teacher: Susan Kuper

Anna Roth, Grade 9, Lacey Township High School, Teacher: Sandy Laird

Sarah Caldes, Grade 11, Point Pleasant Borough High School, Teacher: Susan Kuper

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Home > History Community Special Collections > Remembering COVID-19 Community Archive > Community Reflections > 21

Community Reflections

My life experience during the covid-19 pandemic.

Melissa Blanco Follow

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Undergraduate, Class of 2024

My content explains what my life was like during the last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected my life both positively and negatively. It also explains what it was like when I graduated from High School and how I want the future generations to remember the Class of 2020.

Class assignment, Western Civilization (Dr. Marino).

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Blanco, Melissa, "My Life Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic" (2020). Community Reflections . 21. https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/covid19-reflections/21

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Coronavirus: My Experience During the Pandemic

Anastasiya Kandratsenka George Washington High School, Class of 2021

At this point in time there shouldn't be a single person who doesn't know about the coronavirus, or as they call it, COVID-19. The coronavirus is a virus that originated in China, reached the U.S. and eventually spread all over the world by January of 2020. The common symptoms of the virus include shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, headache, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, vomiting and nausea. As it has been established, it might take up to 14 days for the symptoms to show. On top of that, the virus is also highly contagious putting all age groups at risk. The elderly and individuals with chronic diseases such as pneumonia or heart disease are in the top risk as the virus attacks the immune system.

The virus first appeared on the news and media platforms in the month of January of this year. The United States and many other countries all over the globe saw no reason to panic as it seemed that the virus presented no possible threat. Throughout the next upcoming months, the virus began to spread very quickly, alerting health officials not only in the U.S., but all over the world. As people started digging into the origin of the virus, it became clear that it originated in China. Based on everything scientists have looked at, the virus came from a bat that later infected other animals, making it way to humans. As it goes for the United States, the numbers started rising quickly, resulting in the cancellation of sports events, concerts, large gatherings and then later on schools.

As it goes personally for me, my school was shut down on March 13th. The original plan was to put us on a two weeks leave, returning on March 30th but, as the virus spread rapidly and things began escalating out of control very quickly, President Trump announced a state of emergency and the whole country was put on quarantine until April 30th. At that point, schools were officially shut down for the rest of the school year. Distanced learning was introduced, online classes were established, a new norm was put in place. As for the School District of Philadelphia distanced learning and online classes began on May 4th. From that point on I would have classes four times a week, from 8AM till 3PM. Virtual learning was something that I never had to experience and encounter before. It was all new and different for me, just as it was for millions of students all over the United States. We were forced to transfer from physically attending school, interacting with our peers and teachers, participating in fun school events and just being in a classroom setting, to just looking at each other through a computer screen in a number of days. That is something that we all could have never seen coming, it was all so sudden and new.

My experience with distanced learning was not very great. I get distracted very easily and find it hard to concentrate, especially when it comes to school. In a classroom I was able to give my full attention to what was being taught, I was all there. However, when we had the online classes, I could not focus and listen to what my teachers were trying to get across. I got distracted very easily, missing out on important information that was being presented. My entire family which consists of five members, were all home during the quarantine. I have two little siblings who are very loud and demanding, so I’m sure it can be imagined how hard it was for me to concentrate on school and do what was asked of me when I had these two running around the house. On top of school, I also had to find a job and work 35 hours a week to support my family during the pandemic. My mother lost her job for the time being and my father was only able to work from home. As we have a big family, the income of my father was not enough. I made it my duty to help out and support our family as much as I could: I got a job at a local supermarket and worked there as a cashier for over two months.

While I worked at the supermarket, I was exposed to dozens of people every day and with all the protection that was implemented to protect the customers and the workers, I was lucky enough to not get the virus. As I say that, my grandparents who do not even live in the U.S. were not so lucky. They got the virus and spent over a month isolated, in a hospital bed, with no one by their side. Our only way of communicating was through the phone and if lucky, we got to talk once a week. Speaking for my family, that was the worst and scariest part of the whole situation. Luckily for us, they were both able to recover completely.

As the pandemic is somewhat under control, the spread of the virus has slowed down. We’re now living in the new norm. We no longer view things the same, the way we did before. Large gatherings and activities that require large groups to come together are now unimaginable! Distanced learning is what we know, not to mention the importance of social distancing and having to wear masks anywhere and everywhere we go. This is the new norm now and who knows when and if ever we’ll be able go back to what we knew before. This whole experience has made me realize that we, as humans, tend to take things for granted and don’t value what we have until it is taken away from us.

Articles in this Volume

[tid]: dedication, [tid]: new tools for a new house: transformations for justice and peace in and beyond covid-19, [tid]: black lives matter, intersectionality, and lgbtq rights now, [tid]: the voice of asian american youth: what goes untold, [tid]: beyond words: reimagining education through art and activism, [tid]: voice(s) of a black man, [tid]: embodied learning and community resilience, [tid]: re-imagining professional learning in a time of social isolation: storytelling as a tool for healing and professional growth, [tid]: reckoning: what does it mean to look forward and back together as critical educators, [tid]: leader to leaders: an indigenous school leader’s advice through storytelling about grief and covid-19, [tid]: finding hope, healing and liberation beyond covid-19 within a context of captivity and carcerality, [tid]: flux leadership: leading for justice and peace in & beyond covid-19, [tid]: flux leadership: insights from the (virtual) field, [tid]: hard pivot: compulsory crisis leadership emerges from a space of doubt, [tid]: and how are the children, [tid]: real talk: teaching and leading while bipoc, [tid]: systems of emotional support for educators in crisis, [tid]: listening leadership: the student voices project, [tid]: global engagement, perspective-sharing, & future-seeing in & beyond a global crisis, [tid]: teaching and leadership during covid-19: lessons from lived experiences, [tid]: crisis leadership in independent schools - styles & literacies, [tid]: rituals, routines and relationships: high school athletes and coaches in flux, [tid]: superintendent back-to-school welcome 2020, [tid]: mitigating summer learning loss in philadelphia during covid-19: humble attempts from the field, [tid]: untitled, [tid]: the revolution will not be on linkedin: student activism and neoliberalism, [tid]: why radical self-care cannot wait: strategies for black women leaders now, [tid]: from emergency response to critical transformation: online learning in a time of flux, [tid]: illness methodology for and beyond the covid era, [tid]: surviving black girl magic, the work, and the dissertation, [tid]: cancelled: the old student experience, [tid]: lessons from liberia: integrating theatre for development and youth development in uncertain times, [tid]: designing a more accessible future: learning from covid-19, [tid]: the construct of standards-based education, [tid]: teachers leading teachers to prepare for back to school during covid, [tid]: using empathy to cross the sea of humanity, [tid]: (un)doing college, community, and relationships in the time of coronavirus, [tid]: have we learned nothing, [tid]: choosing growth amidst chaos, [tid]: living freire in pandemic….participatory action research and democratizing knowledge at knowledgedemocracy.org, [tid]: philly students speak: voices of learning in pandemics, [tid]: the power of will: a letter to my descendant, [tid]: photo essays with students, [tid]: unity during a global pandemic: how the fight for racial justice made us unite against two diseases, [tid]: educational changes caused by the pandemic and other related social issues, [tid]: online learning during difficult times, [tid]: fighting crisis: a student perspective, [tid]: the destruction of soil rooted with culture, [tid]: a demand for change, [tid]: education through experience in and beyond the pandemics, [tid]: the pandemic diaries, [tid]: all for one and 4 for $4, [tid]: tiktok activism, [tid]: why digital learning may be the best option for next year, [tid]: my 2020 teen experience, [tid]: living between two pandemics, [tid]: journaling during isolation: the gold standard of coronavirus, [tid]: sailing through uncertainty, [tid]: what i wish my teachers knew, [tid]: youthing in pandemic while black, [tid]: the pain inflicted by indifference, [tid]: education during the pandemic, [tid]: the good, the bad, and the year 2020, [tid]: racism fueled pandemic, [tid]: coronavirus: my experience during the pandemic, [tid]: the desensitization of a doomed generation, [tid]: a philadelphia war-zone, [tid]: the attack of the covid monster, [tid]: back-to-school: covid-19 edition, [tid]: the unexpected war, [tid]: learning outside of the classroom, [tid]: why we should learn about college financial aid in school: a student perspective, [tid]: flying the plane as we go: building the future through a haze, [tid]: my covid experience in the age of technology, [tid]: we, i, and they, [tid]: learning your a, b, cs during a pandemic, [tid]: quarantine: a musical, [tid]: what it’s like being a high school student in 2020, [tid]: everything happens for a reason, [tid]: blacks live matter – a sobering and empowering reality among my peers, [tid]: the mental health of a junior during covid-19 outbreaks, [tid]: a year of change, [tid]: covid-19 and school, [tid]: the virtues and vices of virtual learning, [tid]: college decisions and the year 2020: a virtual rollercoaster, [tid]: quarantine thoughts, [tid]: quarantine through generation z, [tid]: attending online school during a pandemic.

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9 Valuable Lessons We’ve Learned During The Pandemic

1. Family is nonnegotiable.

For many of us, this year brought with it quality family time that we never expected and, honestly, might never have had otherwise. It’s reminded us just how much family matters. And I don’t just mean blood relatives, I mean chosen family, too.

We were encouraged to take a step out of the craziness of our former lives and deeply invest in those relationships again, whether it was face-to-face or not.

We’ve had the opportunity to not just catch up on life, but to also spend priceless time with our loved ones, asking personal questions, being there for the important moments, leaning on each other for support, and growing together. As a result, we remembered just how much we need each other!

2. Prioritize health and wellness .

When the pandemic first began, the world started paying attention to health, wellness, and hygiene like never before. We realized just how effective our handwashing wasn’t , how much we shouldn’t be touching our faces, and the beauty of both modern and natural medicine. These are all crucial practices and levels of care that will hopefully stick with us in the future.

Not only that, but without the usual benefits of daily activity, in-person workouts, and restaurant dining, a microscope was placed on just how willing we were to maintain our wellness all on our own.

With the pandemic came a myriad of free cooking and workout classes on social media and a realization that, particularly when we’re stuck inside, our bodies really do need nutrients and activity to survive.

3. We can get by on less. Much less.

The road to discovering how little we need was paved with uncertainty. With the overwhelming job loss that came with the pandemic, people had to learn how to pinch pennies, clip coupons, and trim excess like never before.

Even for those who kept their jobs, without indoor dining, salons, gyms, and a wealth of other standard social activities, saving money actually became easier to do. Even though we’ll all be lining the doors when things are back to normal, we realized in the process that we actually can live on a lot less and still be content.

4. Build that nest egg.

In addition to pinching those pennies, we learned the endless value of having a rainy day fund – or more appropriately, an emergency fund. An emergency fund is one that is set aside for the most essential of needs, including rent, medical expenses, childcare, and food.

As we’ve all heard over and over again, these are unprecedented times. The nature of unprecedented times is that we don’t see them coming, so we don’t plan for them.

If this year has taught us anything, it’s the importance of setting aside a little extra money and leaving it there until the day comes when we might need it.

5. Slow down.

We’ve realized that not only is it OK to slow down, but it’s actually essential.

When the pandemic hit, it was as if the whole world was running on overdrive and then, all at once, it crashed. We allowed it to get this way because we have a tendency to align our worth with our busyness. But luckily, this past year has shown us just how unbalanced that meter is.

There are a few key points to remember moving forward. First of all, self-care is not self-indulgent; it’s one way that we keep ourselves healthy, both physically and mentally. Second, slowing down is what helps us truly live in the present and find contentment in our circumstances.

6. We should be talking about mental health.

One of the best silver linings of this year is that we learned just how valuable mental health is. Studies show that ever since the pandemic hit, close to 40 percent of Americans now suffer from anxiety and depression. The causes are endless: financial stress, difficult home lives, boredom, loss, fear, and, perhaps the heaviest of all, loneliness.

These universal mental health issues truly are a “second wave” of this global crisis, and the greatest benefit has been the light shed on their gravity.

People are being more vocal than ever about the importance of honesty and vulnerability when it comes to our mental health, just like we would a physical ailment. By doing so, we can get the love and support we need.

7. Our thoughts on people have changed.

The more closed off we’ve had to become socially and the more we’ve noticed the deep need around us, the more we’ve realized whom we consider to be truly essential.

In our own lives, we’ve learned which friends we want close to us in times of trouble – and maybe even some relationships we’ve been needing freedom from.

In our communities, we’ve finally realized the overwhelming value of our essential workers: in health care, education, food service, and the most underappreciated segments of our workforce. May we never forget how brave and resilient they have been for all of us these past 12 months.

8. Becoming comfortable with uncertainty.

“The one thing that’s certain about this current crisis is the massive amount of uncertainty,” Paul Knopp, U.S. Chair and CEO of KPMG LLP, told Accounting Today . “In order to succeed, you must execute on the activities and behaviors that are within your control.”

We have definitely learned flexibility this year. From working and schooling from home, to rerouting our careers, to finding new ways to stay connected, to moving back in with our parents, our flexibility has been award-winning and record-breaking.

A benefit of this growing pain is that it’s made us more comfortable with uncertainty. There’s so much about the future that we can’t possibly know or predict right now, so ultimately all we can do is be OK with it – and choose to find the wonder and joy in our present circumstances.

9. We are deeply resilient.

We are capable of so much more than we ever knew. This year has been rife with chaos, unrest, injustice, loss, and pain – but we’ve survived. We’re still standing. Even in the darkest time, we’ve been able to look outside ourselves and pull through for those in need in remarkable ways. It’s helped us realize the stuff we’re made of .

More than that, we’ve done it together. We’ve all been in isolation together, and we’ve survived together. It’s reminded us that at the end of the day, we are all just human beings, and we need each other.

And now we know with certainty that we can handle anything!

After the levels of stress we’ve lived through this past year, the best we can do is make sure it wasn’t for nothing. We can search for the good, continue to grow, and allow our circumstances to change us for the better. Only then will we continue to come out on the other side stronger, more resilient, more compassionate, and more hopeful than ever!

Share this story to remind others how much they’ve grown this year.

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An essay contest asked D.C. students about challenges faced during the pandemic. There was loss, but also hope.

I was a judge in a recent essay contest for D.C. public and charter school students in fourth through ninth grades. The theme was about the challenges they faced during the pandemic, and I was reminded that the past year has put adult-size problems on the minds and bodies of the young.

“During the pandemic, what has been most challenging for me was when my parents, my uncle and I all got Covid , and then my uncle died,” wrote Brayan Rubio, a fifth-grader at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School at Park View. “Since then, I have learned a lot about myself and others, and what is important in life.”

Nile Grant Williams, a fifth-grader at Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School in the Fort Totten neighborhood, wrote: “Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic is hard enough in itself. However, the injustice to black people has continued to be its own pandemic. Seeing the news and my mom and dad’s upset reaction watching the news was painful. This pain deeply concerned me because I saw myself in those people being killed. It could be me with a police officer’s knee on my neck. It could be me screaming for my mother saying, ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ ”

The “Celebration of Youth” essay contest has been held each year since 1988 and is organized by Dorothea and Jim Brady, stress management specialists who run the D.C.-based nonprofit Global Harmony Through Personal Excellence.

Dorothea Brady said they focused on fourth- through ninth-graders because few writing contests are held for that age group — roughly 9 to 15 years old. “That’s when values and life perspectives are being formed,” she said. “So we ask the youngsters questions such as, ‘What does personal integrity mean to you?’ and ‘What is a challenge and how did you handle it?’ It would be something they couldn’t research, something they would have to look within for the answers.”

Added Jim Brady: “We believe in self-reflection. Who are you becoming? What do you stand for?”

Yaritza Chavez-Ulloa, a fourth-grader at Barnard Elementary School in Petworth, wrote about her family coming together to overcome financial challenges after her father lost his job on a construction site amid cutbacks during the pandemic. Her mother, whom she’d been spending quality time with since stay-at-home orders were put in place, had to take a job cleaning a school and could no longer be home as much. One of her sisters got a job babysitting and dog walking; another got money for her quinceañera and shared it with the family.

“I also got money for my birthday and shared it,” Yaritza wrote. “The money we saved up as a family would go for buying food. We got used to our new routine, but I still missed seeing my mother like I used to.”

Many of the nation’s schoolchildren struggle with mental health

Samiya Williams, a ninth-grader at D.C. International School at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center, is the sister of Nile Grant Williams. She also wrote about the pandemic and race.

“The feeling of freedom being lost by the coronavirus has triggered my nail-biting habit as a result of stress,” she wrote. “However, the coronavirus pandemic is not the only thing I have to worry about — it is also being a young black woman in America. I am also concerned about the other pandemic that has been going on for centuries. Racism. COVID-19 has helped put emphasis on this and my response is to continue to fight against the abysmal treatment of black people that has plagued our community for over 400 years.”

Amy Eugene, a fourth-grader at Barnard Elementary School, found the bright side of the pandemic that had taken her out of school and away from her friends.

“Staying home has some benefits, such as getting my mom’s delicious food every single day for lunch and hanging out together,” she wrote. “Every morning I wake up, I am super excited for class and ready to learn new things.”

This year’s judges were Sam Ford, a veteran reporter with WJLA-TV; Hanna Rosin, a former colleague at The Washington Post who is now with New York Magazine; and me. Helene Krauthamer, head of the English department at the University of the District of Columbia, served as a volunteer tutor for students, and each student was sponsored by a teacher at their school.

The Bradys said they were inspired by the essays, as usual, but not surprised by the maturity of the young writers.

“Year after year, I’m impressed with how in very difficult circumstances many of them find their way, refusing to give up,” Dorothea Brady said. “This is about more than resilience; the strength of character is what comes through.”

There were 124 essays from students at 32 schools in this year’s contest. More than 60 students, including the ones I’ve mentioned, received modest monetary awards and certificates.

I was uplifted by all of them, although I wish none had to suffer through this awful pandemic and ongoing racial strife. Among the winners, I thought Brayan best captured the heartbreak of the pandemic.

The fifth-grader’s account of the pandemic sweeping through his family was compelling — losing his sense of taste and smell to covid-19, watching his mother in agony as she served him herbal teas and onion soups, and then seeing his father rush his uncle to the hospital, struggling for breath.

“Just two hours later, the phone rang with the terrible news that my uncle had died,” Brayan wrote. “We all broke into tears. Our ride was now to the funeral home.”

The virus took both parents

He had a message for his readers, a lesson he’d learned from the loss. “Everyone should shower love on one’s family,” he wrote. And he ended with an expression of hope: “If I win any prize money I would like to use it to help place a nicer headstone on my uncle’s gravesite.”

He got my vote.

And the Bradys my gratitude for more than three decades of a job well done.

To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/milloy .

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How Did the Covid-19 Pandemic Affect You, Your Family and Your Community?

This week is the fourth anniversary of the pandemic. What are your most lasting memories? How did it reshape your life — and the world?

A movie theater marquee with a message saying that events in March are postponed.

By Jeremy Engle

It has been four years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The New York Times writes of the anniversary:

Four years ago today, society began to shut down. Shortly after noon Eastern on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared Covid — or “the coronavirus,” then the more popular term — to be a global pandemic. Stocks plummeted in the afternoon. In the span of a single hour that night, President Donald Trump delivered an Oval Office address about Covid, Tom Hanks posted on Instagram that he had the virus and the N.B.A. announced it had canceled the rest of its season. It was a Wednesday, and thousands of schools would shut by the end of the week. Workplaces closed, too. People washed their hands frequently and touched elbows instead of shaking hands (although the C.D.C. continued to discourage widespread mask wearing for several more weeks). The worst pandemic in a century had begun.

For some people, the earliest days of the pandemic may feel like a lifetime ago; for others, it may feel like just yesterday. But for all of us Covid has indelibly changed our lives and the world. What do you remember about the earliest days of the pandemic? When did it first hit home for you? How did it affect you, your family and your community? What lessons did you learn about yourself and the world?

In “ Four Years On, Covid Has Reshaped Life for Many Americans ,” Julie Bosman writes that while the threat of severe illness and death has faded for many people, the pandemic’s effects still linger:

Jessie Thompson, a 36-year-old mother of two in Chicago, is reminded of the Covid-19 pandemic every day. Sometimes it happens when she picks up her children from day care and then lets them romp around at a neighborhood park on the way home. Other times, it’s when she gets out the shower at 7 a.m. after a weekday workout. “I always think: In my past life, I’d have to be on the train in 15 minutes,” said Ms. Thompson, a manager at United Airlines. A hybrid work schedule has replaced her daily commute to the company headquarters in downtown Chicago, giving Ms. Thompson more time with her children and a deeper connection to her neighbors. “The pandemic is such a negative memory,” she said. “But I have this bright spot of goodness from it.” For much of the United States, the pandemic is now firmly in the past, four years to the day that the Trump administration declared a national emergency as the virus spread uncontrollably. But for many Americans, the pandemic’s effects are still a prominent part of their daily lives. In interviews, some people said that the changes are subtle but unmistakable: Their world feels a little smaller, with less socializing and fewer crowds. Parents who began to home-school their children never stopped. Many people are continuing to mourn relatives and spouses who died of Covid or of complications from the coronavirus. The World Health Organization dropped its global health emergency designation in May 2023, but millions of people who survived the virus are suffering from long Covid, a mysterious and frequently debilitating condition that causes fatigue, muscle pain and cognitive decline . One common sentiment has emerged. The changes brought on by the pandemic now feel lasting, a shift that may have permanently reshaped American life.

As part of our coverage of the pandemic’s anniversary, The Times asked readers how Covid has changed their attitudes toward life. Here is what they said:

“I’m a much more grateful person. Life is precious, and I see the beauty in all the little miracles that happen all around me. I’m a humbled human being now. I have more empathy and compassion towards everyone.” — Gil Gallegos, 59, Las Vegas, N.M. “The pandemic has completely changed my approach to educating my child. My spouse and I had never seriously considered home-schooling until March 2020. Now, we wouldn’t have it any other way.” — Kim Harper, 47, Clinton, Md. “I had contamination O.C.D. before the pandemic began. The last four years have been a steady string of my worst fears coming true. I never feel safe anymore. I know very well now that my body can betray me at any time.” — Adelia Brown, 23, Madison, Wis. “I don’t take for granted the pleasure of being around people. Going to a show, a road trip, a restaurant, people watching at the opera. I love it.” — Philip Gunnels, 66, Sugar Land, Texas “My remaining years are limited. On the one hand, I feel cheated out of many experiences I was looking forward to; on the other hand, I do not want to live my remaining years with long Covid. It’s hard.” — Sandra Wulach, 77, Edison, N.J.

Students, read one or both of the articles and then tell us:

How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect you, your family and your community? How did it reshape your life and the world? What are your most lasting memories of this difficult period? What do you want to remember most? What do you want to forget?

How did you change during this time? What did you learn about yourself and about life? What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

Ms. Bosman writes that some of the people she interviewed revealed that four years after the global pandemic began, “Their world feels a little smaller, with less socializing and fewer crowds.” However, Gil Gallegos told The Times: “I’m a much more grateful person. Life is precious, and I see the beauty in all the little miracles that happen all around me. I’m a humbled human being now. I have more empathy and compassion towards everyone.” Which of the experiences shared in the two articles reminded you the most of your own during and after the pandemic and why? How did Covid change your overall outlook on life?

“The last normal day of school.” “The nursing home shut its doors.” “The bride wore Lululemon.” These are just a few quotes from “ When the Pandemic Hit Home ,” an article in which The Times asked readers to share their memories of the world shutting down. Read the article and then tell us about a time when the pandemic hit home for you.

In the last four years, scientists have unraveled some of the biggest mysteries about Covid. In another article , The Times explores many remaining questions about the coronavirus: Are superdodgers real? Is Covid seasonal? And what’s behind its strangest symptoms? Read the article and then tell us what questions you still have about the virus and its effects.

How do you think history books will tell the story of the pandemic? If you were to put together a time capsule of artifacts from this era to show people 100 years from now, what would you include and why? What will you tell your grandchildren about what it was like to live during this time?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.

Jeremy Engle joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2018 after spending more than 20 years as a classroom humanities and documentary-making teacher, professional developer and curriculum designer working with students and teachers across the country. More about Jeremy Engle

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Essays reveal experiences during pandemic, unrest.

Field study students share their thoughts

Members of Advanced Field Study, a select group of Social Ecology students who are chosen from a pool of applicants to participate in a year-long field study experience and course, had their internships and traditional college experience cut short this year. During our final quarter of the year together, during which we met weekly for two hours via Zoom, we discussed their reactions as the world fell apart around them. First came the pandemic and social distancing, then came the death of George Floyd and the response of the Black Lives Matter movement, both of which were imprinted on the lives of these students. This year was anything but dull, instead full of raw emotion and painful realizations of the fragility of the human condition and the extent to which we need one another. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for our students to chronicle their experiences — the good and the bad, the lessons learned, and ways in which they were forever changed by the events of the past four months. I invited all of my students to write an essay describing the ways in which these times had impacted their learning and their lives during or after their time at UCI. These are their voices. — Jessica Borelli , associate professor of psychological science

Becoming Socially Distant Through Technology: The Tech Contagion

The current state of affairs put the world on pause, but this pause gave me time to reflect on troubling matters. Time that so many others like me probably also desperately needed to heal without even knowing it. Sometimes it takes one’s world falling apart for the most beautiful mosaic to be built up from the broken pieces of wreckage.

As the school year was coming to a close and summer was edging around the corner, I began reflecting on how people will spend their summer breaks if the country remains in its current state throughout the sunny season. Aside from living in the sunny beach state of California where people love their vitamin D and social festivities, I think some of the most damaging effects Covid-19 will have on us all has more to do with social distancing policies than with any inconveniences we now face due to the added precautions, despite how devastating it may feel that Disneyland is closed to all the local annual passholders or that the beaches may not be filled with sun-kissed California girls this summer. During this unprecedented time, I don’t think we should allow the rare opportunity we now have to be able to watch in real time how the effects of social distancing can impact our mental health. Before the pandemic, many of us were already engaging in a form of social distancing. Perhaps not the exact same way we are now practicing, but the technology that we have developed over recent years has led to a dramatic decline in our social contact and skills in general.

The debate over whether we should remain quarantined during this time is not an argument I am trying to pursue. Instead, I am trying to encourage us to view this event as a unique time to study how social distancing can affect people’s mental health over a long period of time and with dramatic results due to the magnitude of the current issue. Although Covid-19 is new and unfamiliar to everyone, the isolation and separation we now face is not. For many, this type of behavior has already been a lifestyle choice for a long time. However, the current situation we all now face has allowed us to gain a more personal insight on how that experience feels due to the current circumstances. Mental illness continues to remain a prevalent problem throughout the world and for that reason could be considered a pandemic of a sort in and of itself long before the Covid-19 outbreak.

One parallel that can be made between our current restrictions and mental illness reminds me in particular of hikikomori culture. Hikikomori is a phenomenon that originated in Japan but that has since spread internationally, now prevalent in many parts of the world, including the United States. Hikikomori is not a mental disorder but rather can appear as a symptom of a disorder. People engaging in hikikomori remain confined in their houses and often their rooms for an extended period of time, often over the course of many years. This action of voluntary confinement is an extreme form of withdrawal from society and self-isolation. Hikikomori affects a large percent of people in Japan yearly and the problem continues to become more widespread with increasing occurrences being reported around the world each year. While we know this problem has continued to increase, the exact number of people practicing hikikomori is unknown because there is a large amount of stigma surrounding the phenomenon that inhibits people from seeking help. This phenomenon cannot be written off as culturally defined because it is spreading to many parts of the world. With the technology we now have, and mental health issues on the rise and expected to increase even more so after feeling the effects of the current pandemic, I think we will definitely see a rise in the number of people engaging in this social isolation, especially with the increase in legitimate fears we now face that appear to justify the previously considered irrational fears many have associated with social gatherings. We now have the perfect sample of people to provide answers about how this form of isolation can affect people over time.

Likewise, with the advancements we have made to technology not only is it now possible to survive without ever leaving the confines of your own home, but it also makes it possible for us to “fulfill” many of our social interaction needs. It’s very unfortunate, but in addition to the success we have gained through our advancements we have also experienced a great loss. With new technology, I am afraid that we no longer engage with others the way we once did. Although some may say the advancements are for the best, I wonder, at what cost? It is now commonplace to see a phone on the table during a business meeting or first date. Even worse is how many will feel inclined to check their phone during important or meaningful interactions they are having with people face to face. While our technology has become smarter, we have become dumber when it comes to social etiquette. As we all now constantly carry a mini computer with us everywhere we go, we have in essence replaced our best friends. We push others away subconsciously as we reach for our phones during conversations. We no longer remember phone numbers because we have them all saved in our phones. We find comfort in looking down at our phones during those moments of free time we have in public places before our meetings begin. These same moments were once the perfect time to make friends, filled with interactive banter. We now prefer to stare at other people on our phones for hours on end, and often live a sedentary lifestyle instead of going out and interacting with others ourselves.

These are just a few among many issues the advances to technology led to long ago. We have forgotten how to practice proper tech-etiquette and we have been inadvertently practicing social distancing long before it was ever required. Now is a perfect time for us to look at the society we have become and how we incurred a different kind of pandemic long before the one we currently face. With time, as the social distancing regulations begin to lift, people may possibly begin to appreciate life and connecting with others more than they did before as a result of the unique experience we have shared in together while apart.

Maybe the world needed a time-out to remember how to appreciate what it had but forgot to experience. Life is to be lived through experience, not to be used as a pastime to observe and compare oneself with others. I’ll leave you with a simple reminder: never forget to take care and love more because in a world where life is often unpredictable and ever changing, one cannot risk taking time or loved ones for granted. With that, I bid you farewell, fellow comrades, like all else, this too shall pass, now go live your best life!

Privilege in a Pandemic

Covid-19 has impacted millions of Americans who have been out of work for weeks, thus creating a financial burden. Without a job and the certainty of knowing when one will return to work, paying rent and utilities has been a problem for many. With unemployment on the rise, relying on unemployment benefits has become a necessity for millions of people. According to the Washington Post , unemployment rose to 14.7% in April which is considered to be the worst since the Great Depression.

Those who are not worried about the financial aspect or the thought never crossed their minds have privilege. Merriam Webster defines privilege as “a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor.” Privilege can have a negative connotation. What you choose to do with your privilege is what matters. Talking about privilege can bring discomfort, but the discomfort it brings can also carry the benefit of drawing awareness to one’s privilege, which can lead the person to take steps to help others.

I am a first-generation college student who recently transferred to a four-year university. When schools began to close, and students had to leave their on-campus housing, many lost their jobs.I was able to stay on campus because I live in an apartment. I am fortunate to still have a job, although the hours are minimal. My parents help pay for school expenses, including housing, tuition, and food. I do not have to worry about paying rent or how to pay for food because my parents are financially stable to help me. However, there are millions of college students who are not financially stable or do not have the support system I have. Here, I have the privilege and, thus, I am the one who can offer help to others. I may not have millions in funding, but volunteering for centers who need help is where I am able to help. Those who live in California can volunteer through Californians For All or at food banks, shelter facilities, making calls to seniors, etc.

I was not aware of my privilege during these times until I started reading more articles about how millions of people cannot afford to pay their rent, and landlords are starting to send notices of violations. Rather than feel guilty and be passive about it, I chose to put my privilege into a sense of purpose: Donating to nonprofits helping those affected by COVID-19, continuing to support local businesses, and supporting businesses who are donating profits to those affected by COVID-19.

My World is Burning

As I write this, my friends are double checking our medical supplies and making plans to buy water and snacks to pass out at the next protest we are attending. We write down the number for the local bailout fund on our arms and pray that we’re lucky enough not to have to use it should things get ugly. We are part of a pivotal event, the kind of movement that will forever have a place in history. Yet, during this revolution, I have papers to write and grades to worry about, as I’m in the midst of finals.

My professors have offered empty platitudes. They condemn the violence and acknowledge the stress and pain that so many of us are feeling, especially the additional weight that this carries for students of color. I appreciate their show of solidarity, but it feels meaningless when it is accompanied by requests to complete research reports and finalize presentations. Our world is on fire. Literally. On my social media feeds, I scroll through image after image of burning buildings and police cars in flames. How can I be asked to focus on school when my community is under siege? When police are continuing to murder black people, adding additional names to the ever growing list of their victims. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. David Mcatee. And, now, Rayshard Brooks.

It already felt like the world was being asked of us when the pandemic started and classes continued. High academic expectations were maintained even when students now faced the challenges of being locked down, often trapped in small spaces with family or roommates. Now we are faced with another public health crisis in the form of police violence and once again it seems like educational faculty are turning a blind eye to the impact that this has on the students. I cannot study for exams when I am busy brushing up on my basic first-aid training, taking notes on the best techniques to stop heavy bleeding and treat chemical burns because at the end of the day, if these protests turn south, I will be entering a warzone. Even when things remain peaceful, there is an ugliness that bubbles just below the surface. When beginning the trek home, I have had armed members of the National Guard follow me and my friends. While kneeling in silence, I have watched police officers cock their weapons and laugh, pointing out targets in the crowd. I have been emailing my professors asking for extensions, trying to explain that if something is turned in late, it could be the result of me being detained or injured. I don’t want to be penalized for trying to do what I wholeheartedly believe is right.

I have spent my life studying and will continue to study these institutions that have been so instrumental in the oppression and marginalization of black and indigenous communities. Yet, now that I have the opportunity to be on the frontlines actively fighting for the change our country so desperately needs, I feel that this study is more of a hindrance than a help to the cause. Writing papers and reading books can only take me so far and I implore that professors everywhere recognize that requesting their students split their time and energy between finals and justice is an impossible ask.

Opportunity to Serve

Since the start of the most drastic change of our lives, I have had the privilege of helping feed more than 200 different families in the Santa Ana area and even some neighboring cities. It has been an immense pleasure seeing the sheer joy and happiness of families as they come to pick up their box of food from our site, as well as a $50 gift card to Northgate, a grocery store in Santa Ana. Along with donating food and helping feed families, the team at the office, including myself, have dedicated this time to offering psychosocial and mental health check-ups for the families we serve.

Every day I go into the office I start my day by gathering files of our families we served between the months of January, February, and March and calling them to check on how they are doing financially, mentally, and how they have been affected by COVID-19. As a side project, I have been putting together Excel spreadsheets of all these families’ struggles and finding a way to turn their situation into a success story to share with our board at PY-OCBF and to the community partners who make all of our efforts possible. One of the things that has really touched me while working with these families is how much of an impact this nonprofit organization truly has on family’s lives. I have spoken with many families who I just call to check up on and it turns into an hour call sharing about how much of a change they have seen in their child who went through our program. Further, they go on to discuss that because of our program, their children have a different perspective on the drugs they were using before and the group of friends they were hanging out with. Of course, the situation is different right now as everyone is being told to stay at home; however, there are those handful of kids who still go out without asking for permission, increasing the likelihood they might contract this disease and pass it to the rest of the family. We are working diligently to provide support for these parents and offering advice to talk to their kids in order to have a serious conversation with their kids so that they feel heard and validated.

Although the novel Coronavirus has impacted the lives of millions of people not just on a national level, but on a global level, I feel that in my current position, it has opened doors for me that would have otherwise not presented themselves. Fortunately, I have been offered a full-time position at the Project Youth Orange County Bar Foundation post-graduation that I have committed to already. This invitation came to me because the organization received a huge grant for COVID-19 relief to offer to their staff and since I was already part-time, they thought I would be a good fit to join the team once mid-June comes around. I was very excited and pleased to be recognized for the work I have done at the office in front of all staff. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity. I will work even harder to provide for the community and to continue changing the lives of adolescents, who have steered off the path of success. I will use my time as a full-time employee to polish my resume, not forgetting that the main purpose of my moving to Irvine was to become a scholar and continue the education that my parents couldn’t attain. I will still be looking for ways to get internships with other fields within criminology. One specific interest that I have had since being an intern and a part-time employee in this organization is the work of the Orange County Coroner’s Office. I don’t exactly know what enticed me to find it appealing as many would say that it is an awful job in nature since it relates to death and seeing people in their worst state possible. However, I feel that the only way for me to truly know if I want to pursue such a career in forensic science will be to just dive into it and see where it takes me.

I can, without a doubt, say that the Coronavirus has impacted me in a way unlike many others, and for that I am extremely grateful. As I continue working, I can also state that many people are becoming more and more hopeful as time progresses. With people now beginning to say Stage Two of this stay-at-home order is about to allow retailers and other companies to begin doing curbside delivery, many families can now see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Let’s Do Better

This time of the year is meant to be a time of celebration; however, it has been difficult to feel proud or excited for many of us when it has become a time of collective mourning and sorrow, especially for the Black community. There has been an endless amount of pain, rage, and helplessness that has been felt throughout our nation because of the growing list of Black lives we have lost to violence and brutality.

To honor the lives that we have lost, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Trayon Martin, and all of the other Black lives that have been taken away, may they Rest in Power.

Throughout my college experience, I have become more exposed to the various identities and the upbringings of others, which led to my own self-reflection on my own privileged and marginalized identities. I identify as Colombian, German, and Mexican; however navigating life as a mixed race, I have never been able to identify or have one culture more salient than the other. I am visibly white-passing and do not hold any strong ties with any of my ethnic identities, which used to bring me feelings of guilt and frustration, for I would question whether or not I could be an advocate for certain communities, and whether or not I could claim the identity of a woman of color. In the process of understanding my positionality, I began to wonder what space I belonged in, where I could speak up, and where I should take a step back for others to speak. I found myself in a constant theme of questioning what is my narrative and slowly began to realize that I could not base it off lone identities and that I have had the privilege to move through life without my identities defining who I am. Those initial feelings of guilt and confusion transformed into growth, acceptance, and empowerment.

This journey has driven me to educate myself more about the social inequalities and injustices that people face and to focus on what I can do for those around me. It has motivated me to be more culturally responsive and competent, so that I am able to best advocate for those around me. Through the various roles I have worked in, I have been able to listen to a variety of communities’ narratives and experiences, which has allowed me to extend my empathy to these communities while also pushing me to continue educating myself on how I can best serve and empower them. By immersing myself amongst different communities, I have been given the honor of hearing others’ stories and experiences, which has inspired me to commit myself to support and empower others.

I share my story of navigating through my privileged and marginalized identities in hopes that it encourages others to explore their own identities. This journey is not an easy one, and it is an ongoing learning process that will come with various mistakes. I have learned that with facing our privileges comes feelings of guilt, discomfort, and at times, complacency. It is very easy to become ignorant when we are not affected by different issues, but I challenge those who read this to embrace the discomfort. With these emotions, I have found it important to reflect on the source of discomfort and guilt, for although they are a part of the process, in taking the steps to become more aware of the systemic inequalities around us, understanding the source of discomfort can better inform us on how we perpetuate these systemic inequalities. If we choose to embrace ignorance, we refuse to acknowledge the systems that impact marginalized communities and refuse to honestly and openly hear cries for help. If we choose our own comfort over the lives of those being affected every day, we can never truly honor, serve, or support these communities.

I challenge any non-Black person, including myself, to stop remaining complacent when injustices are committed. We need to consistently recognize and acknowledge how the Black community is disproportionately affected in every injustice experienced and call out anti-Blackness in every role, community, and space we share. We need to keep ourselves and others accountable when we make mistakes or fall back into patterns of complacency or ignorance. We need to continue educating ourselves instead of relying on the emotional labor of the Black community to continuously educate us on the history of their oppressions. We need to collectively uplift and empower one another to heal and rise against injustice. We need to remember that allyship ends when action ends.

To the Black community, you are strong. You deserve to be here. The recent events are emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting, and the need for rest to take care of your mental, physical, and emotional well-being are at an all time high. If you are able, take the time to regain your energy, feel every emotion, and remind yourself of the power you have inside of you. You are not alone.

The Virus That Makes You Forget

Following Jan. 1 of 2020 many of my classmates and I continued to like, share, and forward the same meme. The meme included any image but held the same phrase: I can see 2020. For many of us, 2020 was a beacon of hope. For the Class of 2020, this meant walking on stage in front of our families. Graduation meant becoming an adult, finding a job, or going to graduate school. No matter what we were doing in our post-grad life, we were the new rising stars ready to take on the world with a positive outlook no matter what the future held. We felt that we had a deal with the universe that we were about to be noticed for our hard work, our hardships, and our perseverance.

Then March 17 of 2020 came to pass with California Gov. Newman ordering us to stay at home, which we all did. However, little did we all know that the world we once had open to us would only be forgotten when we closed our front doors.

Life became immediately uncertain and for many of us, that meant graduation and our post-graduation plans including housing, careers, education, food, and basic standards of living were revoked! We became the forgotten — a place from which many of us had attempted to rise by attending university. The goals that we were told we could set and the plans that we were allowed to make — these were crushed before our eyes.

Eighty days before graduation, in the first several weeks of quarantine, I fell extremely ill; both unfortunately and luckily, I was isolated. All of my roommates had moved out of the student apartments leaving me with limited resources, unable to go to the stores to pick up medicine or food, and with insufficient health coverage to afford a doctor until my throat was too swollen to drink water. For nearly three weeks, I was stuck in bed, I was unable to apply to job deadlines, reach out to family, and have contact with the outside world. I was forgotten.

Forty-five days before graduation, I had clawed my way out of illness and was catching up on an honors thesis about media depictions of sexual exploitation within the American political system, when I was relayed the news that democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was accused of sexual assault. However, when reporting this news to close friends who had been devastated and upset by similar claims against past politicians, they all were too tired and numb from the quarantine to care. Just as I had written hours before reading the initial story, history was repeating, and it was not only I who COVID-19 had forgotten, but now survivors of violence.

After this revelation, I realize the silencing factor that COVID-19 has. Not only does it have the power to terminate the voices of our older generations, but it has the power to silence and make us forget the voices of every generation. Maybe this is why social media usage has gone up, why we see people creating new social media accounts, posting more, attempting to reach out to long lost friends. We do not want to be silenced, moreover, we cannot be silenced. Silence means that we have been forgotten and being forgotten is where injustice and uncertainty occurs. By using social media, pressing like on a post, or even sending a hate message, means that someone cares and is watching what you are doing. If there is no interaction, I am stuck in the land of indifference.

This is a place that I, and many others, now reside, captured and uncertain. In 2020, my plan was to graduate Cum Laude, dean's honor list, with three honors programs, three majors, and with research and job experience that stretched over six years. I would then go into my first year of graduate school, attempting a dual Juris Doctorate. I would be spending my time experimenting with new concepts, new experiences, and new relationships. My life would then be spent giving a microphone to survivors of domestic violence and sex crimes. However, now the plan is wiped clean, instead I sit still bound to graduate in 30 days with no home to stay, no place to work, and no future education to come back to. I would say I am overly qualified, but pandemic makes me lost in a series of names and masked faces.

Welcome to My Cage: The Pandemic and PTSD

When I read the campuswide email notifying students of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the coronavirus pandemic, I was sitting on my couch practicing a research presentation I was going to give a few hours later. For a few minutes, I sat there motionless, trying to digest the meaning of the words as though they were from a language other than my own, familiar sounds strung together in way that was wholly unintelligible to me. I tried but failed to make sense of how this could affect my life. After the initial shock had worn off, I mobilized quickly, snapping into an autopilot mode of being I knew all too well. I began making mental checklists, sharing the email with my friends and family, half of my brain wondering if I should make a trip to the grocery store to stockpile supplies and the other half wondering how I was supposed take final exams in the midst of so much uncertainty. The most chilling realization was knowing I had to wait powerlessly as the fate of the world unfolded, frozen with anxiety as I figured out my place in it all.

These feelings of powerlessness and isolation are familiar bedfellows for me. Early October of 2015, shortly after beginning my first year at UCI, I was diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Despite having had years of psychological treatment for my condition, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Retraining, the flashbacks, paranoia, and nightmares still emerge unwarranted. People have referred to the pandemic as a collective trauma. For me, the pandemic has not only been a collective trauma, it has also been the reemergence of a personal trauma. The news of the pandemic and the implications it has for daily life triggered a reemergence of symptoms that were ultimately ignited by the overwhelming sense of helplessness that lies in waiting, as I suddenly find myself navigating yet another situation beyond my control. Food security, safety, and my sense of self have all been shaken by COVID-19.

The first few weeks after UCI transitioned into remote learning and the governor issued the stay-at-home order, I hardly got any sleep. My body was cycling through hypervigilance and derealization, and my sleep was interrupted by intrusive nightmares oscillating between flashbacks and frightening snippets from current events. Any coping methods I had developed through hard-won efforts over the past few years — leaving my apartment for a change of scenery, hanging out with friends, going to the gym — were suddenly made inaccessible to me due to the stay-at-home orders, closures of non-essential businesses, and many of my friends breaking their campus leases to move back to their family homes. So for me, learning to cope during COVID-19 quarantine means learning to function with my re-emerging PTSD symptoms and without my go-to tools. I must navigate my illness in a rapidly evolving world, one where some of my internalized fears, such as running out of food and living in an unsafe world, are made progressively more external by the minute and broadcasted on every news platform; fears that I could no longer escape, being confined in the tight constraints of my studio apartment’s walls. I cannot shake the devastating effects of sacrifice that I experience as all sense of control has been stripped away from me.

However, amidst my mental anguish, I have realized something important—experiencing these same PTSD symptoms during a global pandemic feels markedly different than it did years ago. Part of it might be the passage of time and the growth in my mindset, but there is something else that feels very different. Currently, there is widespread solidarity and support for all of us facing the chaos of COVID-19, whether they are on the frontlines of the fight against the illness or they are self-isolating due to new rules, restrictions, and risks. This was in stark contrast to what it was like to have a mental disorder. The unity we all experience as a result of COVID-19 is one I could not have predicted. I am not the only student heartbroken over a cancelled graduation, I am not the only student who is struggling to adapt to remote learning, and I am not the only person in this world who has to make sacrifices.

Between observations I’ve made on social media and conversations with my friends and classmates, this time we are all enduring great pain and stress as we attempt to adapt to life’s challenges. As a Peer Assistant for an Education class, I have heard from many students of their heartache over the remote learning model, how difficult it is to study in a non-academic environment, and how unmotivated they have become this quarter. This is definitely something I can relate to; as of late, it has been exceptionally difficult to find motivation and put forth the effort for even simple activities as a lack of energy compounds the issue and hinders basic needs. However, the willingness of people to open up about their distress during the pandemic is unlike the self-imposed social isolation of many people who experience mental illness regularly. Something this pandemic has taught me is that I want to live in a world where mental illness receives more support and isn’t so taboo and controversial. Why is it that we are able to talk about our pain, stress, and mental illness now, but aren’t able to talk about it outside of a global pandemic? People should be able to talk about these hardships and ask for help, much like during these circumstances.

It has been nearly three months since the coronavirus crisis was declared a pandemic. I still have many bad days that I endure where my symptoms can be overwhelming. But somehow, during my good days — and some days, merely good moments — I can appreciate the resilience I have acquired over the years and the common ground I share with others who live through similar circumstances. For veterans of trauma and mental illness, this isn’t the first time we are experiencing pain in an extreme and disastrous way. This is, however, the first time we are experiencing it with the rest of the world. This strange new feeling of solidarity as I read and hear about the experiences of other people provides some small comfort as I fight my way out of bed each day. As we fight to survive this pandemic, I hope to hold onto this feeling of togetherness and acceptance of pain, so that it will always be okay for people to share their struggles. We don’t know what the world will look like days, months, or years from now, but I hope that we can cultivate such a culture to make life much easier for people coping with mental illness.

A Somatic Pandemonium in Quarantine

I remember hearing that our brains create the color magenta all on their own.

When I was younger I used to run out of my third-grade class because my teacher was allergic to the mold and sometimes would vomit in the trash can. My dad used to tell me that I used to always have to have something in my hands, later translating itself into the form of a hair tie around my wrist.

Sometimes, I think about the girl who used to walk on her tippy toes. medial and lateral nerves never planted, never grounded. We were the same in this way. My ability to be firmly planted anywhere was also withered.

Was it from all the times I panicked? Or from the time I ran away and I blistered the soles of my feet 'til they were black from the summer pavement? Emetophobia.

I felt it in the shower, dressing itself from the crown of my head down to the soles of my feet, noting the feeling onto my white board in an attempt to solidify it’s permanence.

As I breathed in the chemical blue transpiring from the Expo marker, everything was more defined. I laid down and when I looked up at the starlet lamp I had finally felt centered. Still. No longer fleeting. The grooves in the lamps glass forming a spiral of what felt to me like an artificial landscape of transcendental sparks.

She’s back now, magenta, though I never knew she left or even ever was. Somehow still subconsciously always known. I had been searching for her in the tremors.

I can see her now in the daphnes, the golden rays from the sun reflecting off of the bark on the trees and the red light that glowed brighter, suddenly the town around me was warmer. A melting of hues and sharpened saturation that was apparent and reminded of the smell of oranges.

I threw up all of the carrots I ate just before. The trauma that my body kept as a memory of things that may or may not go wrong and the times that I couldn't keep my legs from running. Revelations bring memories bringing anxieties from fear and panic released from my body as if to say “NO LONGER!”

I close my eyes now and my mind's eye is, too, more vivid than ever before. My inner eyelids lit up with orange undertones no longer a solid black, neurons firing, fire. Not the kind that burns you but the kind that can light up a dull space. Like the wick of a tea-lit candle. Magenta doesn’t exist. It is perception. A construct made of light waves, blue and red.

Demolition. Reconstruction. I walk down the street into this new world wearing my new mask, somatic senses tingling and I think to myself “Houston, I think we’ve just hit equilibrium.”

How COVID-19 Changed My Senior Year

During the last two weeks of Winter quarter, I watched the emails pour in. Spring quarter would be online, facilities were closing, and everyone was recommended to return home to their families, if possible. I resolved to myself that I would not move back home; I wanted to stay in my apartment, near my boyfriend, near my friends, and in the one place I had my own space. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened, things continued to change quickly. Soon I learned my roommate/best friend would be cancelling her lease and moving back up to Northern California. We had made plans for my final quarter at UCI, as I would be graduating in June while she had another year, but all of the sudden, that dream was gone. In one whirlwind of a day, we tried to cram in as much of our plans as we could before she left the next day for good. There are still so many things – like hiking, going to museums, and showing her around my hometown – we never got to cross off our list.

Then, my boyfriend decided he would also be moving home, three hours away. Most of my sorority sisters were moving home, too. I realized if I stayed at school, I would be completely alone. My mom had been encouraging me to move home anyway, but I was reluctant to return to a house I wasn’t completely comfortable in. As the pandemic became more serious, gentle encouragement quickly turned into demands. I had to cancel my lease and move home.

I moved back in with my parents at the end of Spring Break; I never got to say goodbye to most of my friends, many of whom I’ll likely never see again – as long as the virus doesn’t change things, I’m supposed to move to New York over the summer to begin a PhD program in Criminal Justice. Just like that, my time at UCI had come to a close. No lasts to savor; instead I had piles of things to regret. In place of a final quarter filled with memorable lasts, such as the senior banquet or my sorority’s senior preference night, I’m left with a laundry list of things I missed out on. I didn’t get to look around the campus one last time like I had planned; I never got to take my graduation pictures in front of the UC Irvine sign. Commencement had already been cancelled. The lights had turned off in the theatre before the movie was over. I never got to find out how the movie ended.

Transitioning to a remote learning system wasn’t too bad, but I found that some professors weren’t adjusting their courses to the difficulties many students were facing. It turned out to be difficult to stay motivated, especially for classes that are pre-recorded and don’t have any face-to-face interaction. It’s hard to make myself care; I’m in my last few weeks ever at UCI, but it feels like I’m already in summer. School isn’t real, my classes aren’t real. I still put in the effort, but I feel like I’m not getting much out of my classes.

The things I had been looking forward to this quarter are gone; there will be no Undergraduate Research Symposium, where I was supposed to present two projects. My amazing internship with the US Postal Inspection Service is over prematurely and I never got to properly say goodbye to anyone I met there. I won’t receive recognition for the various awards and honors I worked so hard to achieve.

And I’m one of the lucky ones! I feel guilty for feeling bad about my situation, when I know there are others who have it much, much worse. I am like that quintessential spoiled child, complaining while there are essential workers working tirelessly, people with health concerns constantly fearing for their safety, and people dying every day. Yet knowing that doesn't help me from feeling I was robbed of my senior experience, something I worked very hard to achieve. I know it’s not nearly as important as what many others are going through. But nevertheless, this is my situation. I was supposed to be enjoying this final quarter with my friends and preparing to move on, not be stuck at home, grappling with my mental health and hiding out in my room to get some alone time from a family I don’t always get along with. And while I know it’s more difficult out there for many others, it’s still difficult for me.

The thing that stresses me out most is the uncertainty. Uncertainty for the future – how long will this pandemic last? How many more people have to suffer before things go back to “normal” – whatever that is? How long until I can see my friends and family again? And what does this mean for my academic future? Who knows what will happen between now and then? All that’s left to do is wait and hope that everything will work out for the best.

Looking back over my last few months at UCI, I wish I knew at the time that I was experiencing my lasts; it feels like I took so much for granted. If there is one thing this has all made me realize, it’s that nothing is certain. Everything we expect, everything we take for granted – none of it is a given. Hold on to what you have while you have it, and take the time to appreciate the wonderful things in life, because you never know when it will be gone.

Physical Distancing

Thirty days have never felt so long. April has been the longest month of the year. I have been through more in these past three months than in the past three years. The COVID-19 outbreak has had a huge impact on both physical and social well-being of a lot of Americans, including me. Stress has been governing the lives of so many civilians, in particular students and workers. In addition to causing a lack of motivation in my life, quarantine has also brought a wave of anxiety.

My life changed the moment the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the government announced social distancing. My busy daily schedule, running from class to class and meeting to meeting, morphed into identical days, consisting of hour after hour behind a cold computer monitor. Human interaction and touch improve trust, reduce fear and increases physical well-being. Imagine the effects of removing the human touch and interaction from midst of society. Humans are profoundly social creatures. I cannot function without interacting and connecting with other people. Even daily acquaintances have an impact on me that is only noticeable once removed. As a result, the COVID-19 outbreak has had an extreme impact on me beyond direct symptoms and consequences of contracting the virus itself.

It was not until later that month, when out of sheer boredom I was scrolling through my call logs and I realized that I had called my grandmother more than ever. This made me realize that quarantine had created some positive impacts on my social interactions as well. This period of time has created an opportunity to check up on and connect with family and peers more often than we were able to. Even though we might be connecting solely through a screen, we are not missing out on being socially connected. Quarantine has taught me to value and prioritize social connection, and to recognize that we can find this type of connection not only through in-person gatherings, but also through deep heart to heart connections. Right now, my weekly Zoom meetings with my long-time friends are the most important events in my week. In fact, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to reconnect with many of my old friends and have actually had more meaningful conversations with them than before the isolation.

This situation is far from ideal. From my perspective, touch and in-person interaction is essential; however, we must overcome all difficulties that life throws at us with the best we are provided with. Therefore, perhaps we should take this time to re-align our motives by engaging in things that are of importance to us. I learned how to dig deep and find appreciation for all the small talks, gatherings, and face-to-face interactions. I have also realized that friendships are not only built on the foundation of physical presence but rather on meaningful conversations you get to have, even if they are through a cold computer monitor. My realization came from having more time on my hands and noticing the shift in conversations I was having with those around me. After all, maybe this isolation isn’t “social distancing”, but rather “physical distancing” until we meet again.

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One Student's Perspective on Life During a Pandemic

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
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COVID-19: Ethics, Health and Moving Forward

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The pandemic and resulting shelter-in-place restrictions are affecting everyone in different ways. Tiana Nguyen, shares both the pros and cons of her experience as a student at Santa Clara University.

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Tiana Nguyen ‘21 is a Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. She is majoring in Computer Science, and is the vice president of Santa Clara University’s Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter .

The world has slowed down, but stress has begun to ramp up.

In the beginning of quarantine, as the world slowed down, I could finally take some time to relax, watch some shows, learn to be a better cook and baker, and be more active in my extracurriculars. I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I especially appreciate that I’m able to live in a comfortable house and have gotten the opportunity to spend more time with my family. This has actually been the first time in years in which we’re all able to even eat meals together every single day. Even when my brother and I were young, my parents would be at work and sometimes come home late, so we didn’t always eat meals together. In the beginning of the quarantine I remember my family talking about how nice it was to finally have meals together, and my brother joking, “it only took a pandemic to bring us all together,” which I laughed about at the time (but it’s the truth).

Soon enough, we’ll all be back to going to different places and we’ll be separated once again. So I’m thankful for my living situation right now. As for my friends, even though we’re apart, I do still feel like I can be in touch with them through video chat—maybe sometimes even more in touch than before. I think a lot of people just have a little more time for others right now.

Although there are still a lot of things to be thankful for, stress has slowly taken over, and work has been overwhelming. I’ve always been a person who usually enjoys going to classes, taking on more work than I have to, and being active in general. But lately I’ve felt swamped with the amount of work given, to the point that my days have blurred into online assignments, Zoom classes, and countless meetings, with a touch of baking sweets and aimless searching on Youtube.

The pass/no pass option for classes continues to stare at me, but I look past it every time to use this quarter as an opportunity to boost my grades. I've tried to make sense of this type of overwhelming feeling that I’ve never really felt before. Is it because I’m working harder and putting in more effort into my schoolwork with all the spare time I now have? Is it because I’m not having as much interaction with other people as I do at school? Or is it because my classes this quarter are just supposed to be this much harder? I honestly don’t know; it might not even be any of those. What I do know though, is that I have to continue work and push through this feeling.

This quarter I have two synchronous and two asynchronous classes, which each have pros and cons. Originally, I thought I wanted all my classes to be synchronous, since that everyday interaction with my professor and classmates is valuable to me. However, as I experienced these asynchronous classes, I’ve realized that it can be nice to watch a lecture on my own time because it even allows me to pause the video to give me extra time for taking notes. This has made me pay more attention during lectures and take note of small details that I might have missed otherwise. Furthermore, I do realize that synchronous classes can also be a burden for those abroad who have to wake up in the middle of the night just to attend a class. I feel that it’s especially unfortunate when professors want students to attend but don’t make attendance mandatory for this reason; I find that most abroad students attend anyway, driven by the worry they’ll be missing out on something.

I do still find synchronous classes amazing though, especially for discussion-based courses. I feel in touch with other students from my classes whom I wouldn’t otherwise talk to or regularly reach out to. Since Santa Clara University is a small school, it is especially easy to interact with one another during classes on Zoom, and I even sometimes find it less intimidating to participate during class through Zoom than in person. I’m honestly not the type to participate in class, but this quarter I found myself participating in some classes more than usual. The breakout rooms also create more interaction, since we’re assigned to random classmates, instead of whomever we’re sitting closest to in an in-person class—though I admit breakout rooms can sometimes be awkward.

Something that I find beneficial in both synchronous and asynchronous classes is that professors post a lecture recording that I can always refer to whenever I want. I found this especially helpful when I studied for my midterms this quarter; it’s nice to have a recording to look back upon in case I missed something during a lecture.

Overall, life during these times is substantially different from anything most of us have ever experienced, and at times it can be extremely overwhelming and stressful—especially in terms of school for me. Online classes don’t provide the same environment and interactions as in-person classes and are by far not as enjoyable. But at the end of the day, I know that in every circumstance there is always something to be thankful for, and I’m appreciative for my situation right now. While the world has slowed down and my stress has ramped up, I’m slowly beginning to adjust to it.

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Becoming a Teacher: What I Learned about Myself During the Pandemic

Now, more than ever, we need to hear the voices of preservice teachers as well as in-service teachers during this pandemic. How has the pandemic affected them? In what ways has the pandemic enabled them to think about the need to really focus on what matters, what’s important? What were the gains and losses? These are very important questions for our time. In this essay, Alyssa Smith, a senior studying early childhood education, attempts to address the lessons learned from her junior year, focusing on the positive aspects of her coursework and demonstrating an imaginative, growth mindset. This essay highlights the power of students’ reflection on their own learning. But I think it does so much more meaningful contemplation than we might expect of our students in “normal” times. Alyssa gains a new appreciation for this kind of active reflection—the opportunity to think more critically; to be more thoughtful; to stop, step back, catch her breath, and rethink things. As a teacher educator and her mentor, I believe this essay represents how the gift of time to stop and reflect can open space to digest what has been experienced, and how the gift of reflective writing can create a deeper level of thinking about how experiences integrate with one’s larger narrative as a person.

About the Author

Andrew Stremmel, PhD, is professor in early childhood education at South Dakota State University. His research is in teacher action research and Reggio Emilia-inspired, inquiry-based approaches to early childhood teacher education. He is an executive editor of Voices of Practitioners .

I’ve always known I was meant to be a teacher. I could feel my passion guide my work and lead my heart through my classes. So why did I still feel as if something was missing? During the fall of my junior year, the semester right before student teaching, I began to doubt my ability to be a great teacher, as I did not feel completely satisfied in my work. What I did not expect was a global pandemic that would shut down school and move all coursework online. I broke down. I wanted to do more than simply be a good student. I wanted to learn to be a great teacher. How was I supposed to discover my purpose and find what I was missing when I couldn’t even attend my classes? I began to fret that I would never become the capable and inspirational educator that I strived to be, when I was missing the firsthand experience of being in classrooms, interacting with children, and collaborating with peers.

It wasn’t until my first full semester being an online student that I realized the pandemic wasn’t entirely detrimental to my learning. Two of my early childhood education courses, Play and Inquiry and Pedagogy and Curriculum, allowed limited yet meaningful participation in a university lab school as well as engagement with problems of substance that require more intense thinking, discussion, analysis, and thoughtful action. These problems, which I briefly discuss below, presented challenges, provocations, possibilities, and dilemmas to be pondered, and not necessarily resolved. Specifically, they pushed me to realize that the educational question for our time is not, “What do I need to know about how to teach?” Rather, it is, “What do I need to know about myself in the context of this current pandemic?” I was therefore challenged to think more deeply about who I wanted to be as a teacher and who I was becoming, what I care about and value, and how I will conduct myself in the classroom with my students.

These three foundations of teaching practice (who I want to be, what I value, and how I will conduct myself) were illuminated by a question that was presented to us students in one of the very first classes of the fall 2020 semester: “What’s happening right now in your experience that will help you to learn more about yourself and who you are becoming?” This provocation led me to discover that, while the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light (and at times magnified) many fears and insecurities I had as a prospective teacher, it also provided me with unique opportunities, time to reflect, and surprising courage that I feel would not otherwise have been afforded and appreciated.

Although I knew I wanted to be a teacher, I had never deliberately pondered the idea of what kind of teacher I wanted to be. I held the core values of being an advocate for children and helping them grow as confident individuals, but I still had no idea what teaching style I was to present. Fortunately, the pandemic enabled me to view my courses on play and curriculum as a big “look into the mirror” to discern what matters and what was important about becoming a teacher.

As I worked through the rest of the course, I realized that this project pushed me to think about my identity as an educator in relation to my students rather than simply helping me understand my students, as I initially thought. Instead, a teacher’s identity is formed in relation to or in relationship with our students: We take what we know about our students and use it to shape ourselves and how we teach. I found that I had to take a step back and evaluate my own perceptions and beliefs about children and who I am in relation to them. Consequently, this motivated me to think about myself as a classroom teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic. What did I know about children that would influence the way I would teach them?

I thought about how children were resilient, strong, and adaptable, possessing an innate ability to learn in nearly any setting. While there were so many uncertainties and fear surrounding them, they adapted to mask-wearing, limited children in the classroom, and differentiated tasks to limit cross-contamination. Throughout, the children embodied being an engaged learner. They did not seem to focus on what they were missing; their limitless curiosity could not keep them from learning. Yet, because young children learn primarily through relationships, they need some place of learning that helps them to have a connection with someone who truly knows, understands, and cares about them. Thus, perhaps more than any lesson, I recognized my relationship with children as more crucial. By having more time to think about children from this critical perspective, I felt in my heart the deeper meaning children held to me.

My compassion for children grew, and a greater respect for them took shape, which overall is what pushed me to see my greater purpose for who I want to be as an educator. The pandemic provided time to develop this stronger vision of children, a clearer understanding of how they learn, and how my identity as a teacher is formed in relationship with children. I don’t think I would have been able to develop such a rich picture of how I view children without an in-depth exploration of my identity, beliefs, and values.

In my curriculum course, I was presented a different problem that helped me reflect on who I am becoming as an educator. This was presented as a case study where we as students were asked the question, “Should schools reopen amidst the COVID-19 pandemic?” This was a question that stumped school districts around the nation, making me doubt that I would be able to come up with anything that would be remotely practical. I now was experiencing another significant consequence of the pandemic: a need for new, innovative thinking on how to address state-wide academic issues. My lack of confidence, paired with the unknowns presented by the pandemic, made me feel inadequate to take on this problem of meaning.

To address this problem, I considered more intentionally and reflectively what I knew about how children learn; issues of equity and inequality that have led to a perceived achievement gap; the voices of both teachers and families; a broader notion of what school might look like in the “new normal”; and the role of the community in the education of young children. Suddenly, I was thinking in a more critical way about how to address this problem from the mindset of an actual and more experienced teacher, one who had never faced such a conundrum before. I knew that I had to design a way to allow children to come back into a classroom setting, and ultimately find inspiration for learning in this new normal. I created this graphic (above) to inform families and teachers why it is vital to have students return to school. As a result, I became an educator. I was now thinking, feeling, and acting as a teacher. This case study made me think about myself and who I am becoming as a teacher in a way that was incredibly real and relevant to what teachers were facing. I now found inspiration in the COVID-19 pandemic, as it unlocked elements of myself that I did not know existed.

John Dewey (1916) has been attributed to stating, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Learning may begin in the classroom, but it does not end there. Likewise, teaching is not a role, but a way of being. The ability to connect with children and to engage them meaningfully depends less on the methods we use than on the degree to which we know and trust ourselves and are willing to share that knowledge with them. That comes through continually reflecting on who we are in relation to children and their families, and what we do in the classroom to create more meaningful understanding of our experiences. By embodying the role of being an educator, I grew in ways that classroom curriculum couldn't prepare me for. Had it not been for the pandemic, this might not have been possible.

Dewey, J. 1916. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education . New York: MacMillan.

Alyssa Marie Smith is currently an early childhood education student studying at South Dakota State University. She has been a student teacher in the preschool lab on campus, and now works as a kindergarten out of school time teacher in this same lab school. In the fall, she plans to student teach in an elementary setting, and then go on to teach in her own elementary classroom.

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Pandemics and Clinical Psychology

Pandemics are complex events involving a range of stressors affecting mental health. The recent COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst, accelerating preexisting trends in clinical care such as the rise of e-health for rapidly and broadly disseminating psychological services. The process of adapting face-to-face clinical services to online formats occurred rapidly during COVID-19, underscoring the adaptability of clinicians to meet new challenges. However, COVID-19 also highlighted important shortcomings in clinical care, including planning deficiencies and shortages of clinicians with specialized training for treating various psychological problems (e.g., prolonged grief disorder). These problems and potential solutions are discussed.

11.11.1. Introduction

Pandemics are outbreaks of infectious diseases that spread globally, affecting millions of people. Epidemics, in comparison, are lesser, more localized outbreaks, limited to a few countries. Pandemics and some epidemics arise from emerging infectious diseases; that is, diseases for which most people have no pre-existing immunity. Pandemics are an inevitable part of human existence and likely to become more prevalent in the coming years, given the rapidly growing global population, increasing population mobility due to mass transportation (e.g., air travel), and the likely change in disease dynamics that will come with climate change (e.g., increasing prevalence of tropical diseases in formerly temperate regions).

The psychological footprint of pandemics, particularly the more severe outbreaks, tends to be larger than the medical footprint, in that psychological effects are more pronounced, widespread, and longer-lasting than the purely somatic effects of infection ( Taylor, 2019 , 2021d ). To illustrate, for every COVID-19 fatality, there is an average of five bereaved immediate family members ( Verdery et al., 2020 ). This underscores the fact that pandemics can have wide-reaching effects even on people who may not have been infected.

Historically, the importance of psychological factors in pandemics has been neglected by scientists and health authorities despite evidence that pandemics are, to a large extent, psychological phenomena in which beliefs and behaviors influence the spreading versus containment of infection ( Taylor, 2019 ). Psychological factors are important in determining (a) adherence to pandemic-mitigation methods (e.g., social distancing protocols, mask-wearing, vaccine uptake), (b) pandemic-related socially disruptive events (e.g., panic-buying, protest rallies against social restrictions), and (c) pandemic-related psychopathology such as anxiety or mood disorders, contamination-related obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and prolonged grief disorder ( Taylor, 2019 , 2021b ).

Although each pandemic had its characteristic features, such as its sociocultural context and disease characteristics, many of the basic psychological phenomena observed in the COVID-19 pandemic were apparent in past pandemics and other major outbreaks, particularly the more lethal outbreaks, such as the 1889 Russian flu pandemic, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Notable similarities include the following: (a) the role of the news media in both calming and alarming the populace; (b) the initial efforts of political leaders to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak so as to calm people and keep the economy running; (c) the rise of anticipatory anxiety ahead of the arrival of infection in one's community; (d) the rise of xenophobia, rumors, and conspiracy theories; panic buying; (e) the new onset of mental disorders and worsening of preexisting ones; (f) protests over social distancing restrictions and related mandates; (g) the rise of quack cures and profiteering; and, (h) the occasional rioting and violent protests but, more commonly, a rise of altruism as people come together to help one another ( Taylor, 2019 , 2021b ).

Important differences between COVID-19 and past pandemics include, for COVID-19, the effects of the 24/7 news cycle and social media, and differences in medical management (e.g., availability of treatments for secondary pneumonia). Not all past pandemics or outbreaks had significant impacts on mental health. Although the Russian flu, Spanish flu, and SARS outbreaks had deleterious effects on mental health ( Taylor, 2019 ), other pandemics such as the 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemics had apparently little impact ( Honigsbaum, 2020 ). Differences can be attributed to a range of factors including disease lethality and contagiousness, whether the disease killed in gruesome or excruciating ways, and the extent to which health authorities and the news media reacted with alarm about the outbreak.

Pandemics are dynamic events, often occurring in waves. These are caused, in part, by fluctuations in patterns of human aggregation. This occurs, for example, as part of seasonal movements of people away from and then into contact with one another, as occurs when schools are closed for the summer and then reopen ( Herrera-Valdez et al., 2011 ). Pandemics are also dynamic in terms of psychological reactions, with anxiety levels rising, for example, as infection rates rise in communities, and anxiety abating as social restrictions are lifted ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2020 ). Psychological reactions may also change as the pandemic progresses, especially if government-mandated restrictions such as social distancing are implemented. With the prolonged stress of rolling lockdowns (i.e., recurrent stay-at-home orders), and other restrictions on social gatherings, a phenomenon known as pandemic fatigue can occur, characterized by progressively worsening adherence to social distancing guidelines accompanied by negative emotions such as depression, irritability, and apathy ( World Health Organization, 2020 ).

In summary, pandemics are not simply about some microbe “going viral.” Behaviors, emotions, and attitudes play a key role in the spreading versus containment of disease, distress, and societal disruption. Psychology plays a vital role in every aspect of pandemic management, including the development of effective public messaging to encourage adherence to pandemic mitigation measures, and methods for managing pandemic-related mental health problems. Strategies for improving public health messaging have been discussed at length in various publications (e.g., World Health Organization, 2020 ). The purpose of this chapter is to focus specifically on the role of clinical psychology in pandemics and pandemic management. That is, to (a) review the types of psychopathology arising during pandemics such as COVID-19, (b) discuss the state-of-the-art of clinical services for pandemics, and (c) consider the clinical psychological needs and services for future pandemics. In the following sections, discussion is put in context with a brief review of pandemic-related stressors and how they are linked to psychopathology, along with a summary of contemporary methods of pandemic management.

11.11.2. Pandemic-Related Stressors

Uncertainty is a pervasive, abstract stressor during pandemics ( Taylor, 2021b ). Examples include uncertainties about whether a disease outbreak will become a pandemic, how dangerous it will be, whether there are effective prophylactic measures, how long the pandemic will last, who is infected (e.g., who is an asymptomatic carrier), and whether the pandemic is over or whether there will be another wave of infection. The voluminous amount of pandemic-related news and social media information—the so-called infodemic —adds to the uncertainties, including uncertainties about which news stories or rumors are accurate and which are misinformed or even fake. Uncertainties can lead to high levels of worry (as in generalized anxiety disorder; GAD), particularly for people who have high levels of intolerance of uncertainty, as discussed later in this chapter.

In addition to uncertainty-related stressors, there are several other pandemic-related stressors, which are potentially associated with various forms of psychopathology. Examples include (a) the loss of loved ones, potentially leading to prolonged grief disorder, (b) threats to, or loss of, occupation and income (e.g., due to lockdown or economic recession), leading to potential problems including anxiety and mood disorders, substance use disorders, and suicide (c) trauma exposure (e.g., exposure to death, child or spousal abuse during lockdown, life-threatening infection), and trauma-related disorders, (d) exposure to infection and the development of contamination-related OCD, especially in people with preexisting risk factors for these disorders (e.g., preexisting obsessive-compulsive tendencies), and (e) persistent direct effects of the infection itself such as chronic dyspnea or fatigue (i.e., the stress of chronic disease) ( Taylor, 2019 , 2021b ).

11.11.3. Goals of Pandemic Management

There are two broad goals in managing pandemics, of which psychology is central to both: (a) to encourage people to take the pandemic seriously and to adopt the recommended pandemic mitigation practices such as social distancing, and (b) to encourage these practices without precipitating mass panic. Governments and health authorities have long expressed concerns about pandemic-precipitated mass panic or mass hysteria, reflecting the tendency for government leaders to regard crowds as sources of irrational thinking and dangerous behavior ( Tomes, 2010 ). While many people might become highly anxious or engage in panic buying during a pandemic, mass panic tends to be rare ( Taylor, 2019 ). Nevertheless, such episodes have occurred (see Taylor, 2019 , for examples). Accordingly, the World Health Organization (WHO) (2005) raised concerns about mass panic during pandemics.

Pandemic mitigation involves risk communication in which health authorities and other community leaders inform the public about the degree of risk posed by the pandemic, and make recommendations or mandates about pandemic mitigation strategies. These involve hygiene practices (e.g., handwashing, covering coughs), social distancing strategies (e.g., remaining six feet apart from strangers when out in public), stay-at-home recommendations or mandates, adherence to mask-wearing and vaccination, and strategic closures of places of congregation such as bars, restaurants, places of amusement (e.g., cinemas), schools, and churches. Clearly, people in the community need to agree to adhere to these behaviors, restrictions, or closures in order for these methods to be effective.

Sometimes, pandemic mitigation methods are more important for calming the public than for reducing the risk of infection. In the early months of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, health authorities emphasized the importance of cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and objects that might be contaminated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In later months, as research on the transmission of the virus accumulated, it became apparent that contaminated surfaces or objects were not as important as previously thought, and that infection was spread primarily through droplets and erosols (e.g., coughing, sneezing) ( Goldman, 2020 ). In fact, the WHO acknowledged that there is limited evidence of SARS-COV-2 being transmitted via contaminated surfaces ( Lewis, 2021 ). Yet, vigorous cleaning and disinfecting persisted; trains, buses, and public spaces were vigorously washed, restaurant tables were scrubbed, and objects touched by people were assiduously sanitized. This excessive cleaning was dubbed hygiene theater ( Thompson, 2020 ), which served more to reassure the public than to reduce the spread of infection. Hygiene theater fostered a sense of control during the pandemic, albeit a largely illusory one. Note that the notion of hygiene theater is not new; a very similar idea was raised in 1918 during in the Spanish flu in which some medical authorities believed that facemasks provided a false sense of security, which could nonetheless be useful in alleviating public anxiety ( Price, 1919 ). In other words, donning a mask gave the wearer a false sense of control, which was useful in allaying public anxiety about infection.

11.11.4. Pandemic-Related Psychopathology: an Overview

11.11.4.1. covid-19.

Pandemic-related stressors can amplify or exacerbate various types of mental health problems, including anxiety and related disorders, mood disorders, and substance-use disorders. Accordingly, it is not surprising that the severity of these disorders tended to be exacerbated during COVID-19 ( Asmundson et al., 2020 ). During COVID-19, clinically significant anxiety or depression also occurred in some people who had no prior history of anxiety or mood disorders. During the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, for example, there was widespread distress in communities, with about 20% of people having elevated levels of anxiety or depression ( Taylor et al., 2020a ). Meta-analytic research indicates that the mental health consequences of COVID-19 during the short-term (i.e., during the pandemic) were equally high among countries in which COVID-19 was widespread and equally prevalent across genders ( Cénat et al., 2021 ).

Longitudinal surveys conducted over the course of COVID-19 in 2020 indicated that, on average, there was a progressive deterioration in mental health as pandemic mitigation restrictions were drawn out. This occurred for people of all walks of life including older adults, young adults, and youth ( Prati and Mancini, 2021 ). Although people tend to be resilient, a substantial minority were emotionally affected by COVID-19. Deterioration in mental health mainly involved increases in depression, but also increases in anxiety, insomnia, and substance abuse ( Prati and Mancini, 2021 ). Longitudinal studies during 2020 further found that depressed mood tended to persist or progressively worsen whereas anxiety levels tended to fluctuate; for example, anxiety rose as cases of infection increased and anxiety diminished as infection rates abated and social distancing restrictions were eased ( Yarrington et al., 2021 ).

Deterioration of mental health during 2020 was linked to a range of factors, particularly the restrictions placed by lockdown and associated effects such as reductions in both income and physical activity ( Prati and Mancini, 2021 ). Lockdown required many people to work from home. Working from home can be stressful if the home environment is not conducive to this arrangement, such as when one is working from home while also caring for young children.

After communities were released from lockdown, mental health tended to improve on average, even when other pandemic restrictions (e.g., restrictions on social gatherings) were still in place and vaccines had not yet become available ( Richter et al., 2021 ). However, not all people are likely to recover unaided from pandemic-related stress. Forecasting modeling from England in 2020 suggested that about 20% of the UK population would need either new or additional mental health support as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic ( O'Shea, 2020 ). The long-term mental health effects of COVID-19 may not become fully apparent until many years after the pandemic is over. This could include the long-term effects of disrupted education and restricted socialization opportunities for children, and job loss for adults. For both children and adults, long-term effects could also include persistent bereavement and lingering health effects of SARS-COV-2 infection.

11.11.4.2. Past Outbreaks

Many past pandemics and outbreaks, such as the Russian flu, Spanish flu, 2009 Swine flu pandemic, and SARS, were associated with community-wide increases in emotional distress ( Honigsbaum, 2013 ; Taylor, 2019 ). In the years following both the Russian and the Spanish flu pandemics there were increases in first-time admissions to psychiatric hospitals ( Mamelund, 2010 ). In the years following the 2003 SARS outbreak there was a rise in mental disorders in people who had acquired the disease, as compared to those who were not infected ( Tzeng et al., 2020 ). In contrast to these pandemics and outbreaks, other pandemics, such as the 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemics, were apparently associated with very little distress or lingering effects. Compared to the Russian flu, Spanish flu, and COVID-19, the pandemics of 1957 and 1968 were milder. That, along with the lack of government restrictions and the lack of media attention, may account for the relative lack of public anxiety. The pandemics of 1957 and 1968 are instructive because they show that widespread anxiety is not an inevitable reaction to pandemics.

11.11.5. Specific Clinical Conditions Associated with Pandemics

11.11.5.1. fear of infection.

During pandemics, it is expected and reasonable for people to experience some degree of fear or anxiety, especially when infection is serious and widespread. These emotional reactions can be adaptive if they motivate the person to take necessary precautions (e.g., wear a mask, get vaccinated). In comparison, our focus here is on extreme, impairing, and disproportionate levels of fear or anxiety in response to infection. Historical descriptions of pandemic-related excessive fears have, in many ways, resembled contemporary definitions of specific phobias, in which fear, avoidance, and anticipatory anxiety were cardinal features ( Taylor, 2019 , 2021a ). Examples include “flu-phobia” during the Spanish flu pandemic, descriptions of phobic responses during the Zika virus and Swine flu pandemics, and references to “coronaphobia” during COVID-19 ( Taylor, 2021a ).

During COVID-19, some clinical investigators began questioning the assumption that pandemic-related fears are simple mono-phobias. There were strong hints from previous outbreaks that fear of infection was part of a broader syndrome or set of syndromes. Research on past pandemics (e.g., Zika, Swine flu) and SARS showed that fear of infection was correlated with obsessive-compulsive contamination symptoms (i.e., health-related checking and reassurance seeking) and with traumatic stress symptoms (i.e., pandemic-related nightmares or intrusive thoughts) ( Taylor et al., 2020a ). The question remained, however, as to whether some combination of these symptoms co-occurred to form a psychopathologic syndrome.

To investigate the issue further, my colleagues and I developed a battery of scales to assess COVID-19-related anxiety reactions, called the COVID Stress Scales ( Taylor et al., 2020b ). Through a process of multivariate statistical analyses, involving factor analyses and other methods, we identified a stable, replicable factor structure consisting of five inter-correlated elements that we termed the COVID Stress Syndrome ( Taylor et al., 2020a , 2020b ). The COVID Stress Syndrome comprises (a) fear of becoming infected with SARS-COV-2 and fear of coming into contact with potentially infected objects or surfaces, (b) COVID-19-related xenophobia (i.e., fear of coming into contact with foreigners for fear that they might be infected), (c) fear of the personal socio-economic consequences of the pandemic (e.g., job loss, financial hardships), (d) compulsive checking and reassurance-seeking about pandemic-related threats (e.g., repetitively checking the news and social media for pandemic-related information), and (e) traumatic stress symptoms about the pandemic (e.g., nightmares, intrusive thoughts pertaining to the pandemic).

The five scales were strongly intercorrelated ( rs ranging from 0.41 to 0.73) and essentially defined a dimensional (rather than present/absent) syndrome ( Taylor et al., 2020a ). Network analyses indicated that fear of becoming infected was at the core of the syndrome. The severity of the syndrome was correlated with a range of preexisting (pre-COVID-19) emotional vulnerability factors, including intolerance of uncertainty, negative emotionality, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, general anxiety about one's health, and heightened perceived vulnerability to disease ( Taylor et al., 2020a , 2020b ).

Severe scores on the scales, combined with evidence of functional impairment due to COVID-19-related distress, are indicative of a COVID Stress Disorder ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2020 ). This disorder represents a combination of symptoms that don't neatly fit into diagnostic categories of major anxiety-related disorders because it combines elements of various disorders (e.g., OCD, PTSD, specific phobia). Instead, severe, impairing forms of the COVID Stress Syndrome are best conceptualized as representing an adjustment disorder, where symptoms wax and wane over time in relation to the perceived degree of threat posed by COVID-19. That is, the severity fluctuated in concert with the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2020 ). Adjustment disorders are not trivial conditions and merit serious attention from clinicians, especially because not all adjustment disorders are transient; some evolve into chronic, progressively intensifying psychopathology ( Bachem and Casey, 2018 ). Further research is needed to investigate the extent to which this occurs for the COVID Stress Syndrome, and whether future pandemics will be associated with similar syndromes. Nevertheless, the findings support the view that pandemic-related fear is more than simply a mono-phobia; instead, fear of infection is an important element of a broader constellation of psychopathology. Accordingly, when assessing patients with pandemic-related anxiety, it is important to conduct a broad assessment of the sources of anxiety or distress in order to identify important targets for treatment.

11.11.5.2. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Research indicates that OCD arises, in part, from gene-environment interactions, where vulnerability genes interact with particular environmental stressors ( Taylor, 2011 ). The specific genes have yet to be delineated, although there are several promising candidate polymorphisms. Pandemics are stressful, protracted environmental events involving uncertainty and the threat of infection and other (e.g., socioeconomic) threats. Pandemic-related stressors are likely to interact with genetic factors for OCD, such as the genetic factors associated with contamination-related obsessions and compulsions ( Taylor, 2011 ). Some forms of contamination-related OCD are associated with fears of becoming infected with pathogens. Such people may have unwanted intrusive thoughts (i.e., obsessions) about becoming infected and may engage in extensive washing or cleaning rituals, and seek out reassurance about their health from loved ones or from medical professionals. These types of OCD symptoms, along with OCD in general, have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to heightened anxiety, checking, cleaning, and avoidance of germ-related places or situations (e.g., Taylor et al., 2020a ). Contamination-related OCD, in addition to related disorders such as the COVID Stress Syndrome, may also arise de novo for people with a genetic predisposition that interacts with pandemic-related stressors.

In addition to giving rise to, or worsening, OCD, pandemics can also interfere with the treatment of the disorder. The effects of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) for OCD, involving exposure and response prevention, were attenuated during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Storch et al., 2021 ), likely due to a range of factors, including disruptions in access to treatment and reluctance to engage in exposure therapy (e.g., touching contaminated surfaces) because of fears of becoming infected with SARS-COV-2. Research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has not interfered with the effects of pharmacotherapy for OCD ( Sharma et al., 2021 ). Given the problems in administering exposure-based therapies during COVID-19, it has been argued that pharmacotherapy should be the first-line treatment for OCD during the pandemic ( Fineberg et al., 2020 ). This recommendation, based on limited research, requires further evaluation. If CBT involving exposure and response prevention is used, it should take into account guidance from health authorities (e.g., hand-washing and cleaning guidelines from the WHO or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) rather than ceasing handwashing altogether. Patients also should be discouraged from exceeding the health guidelines, such as the unnecessary use of disinfectants.

11.11.5.3. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD can be triggered by traumatic pandemic-related stressors such as the death of a loved one, exposure to widespread death, or personal life-threatening experiences linked to severe infection ( Taylor, 2019 ). PTSD and posttraumatic stress symptoms have been documented in many studies during outbreaks of SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19 ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2021 ). A problem in interpreting the findings is that many of the studies were based on flawed methodology; for example, failing to assess whether the person experienced a traumatic stressor, failing to assess whether the putative PTSD symptoms were linked to a traumatic stressor, and failing to determine whether symptoms had been present for at least a month, as required to diagnose PTSD ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2021 ). Some studies have treated the mere experience of living during COVID-19 as a “traumatic stressor.” This excessively broad definition confuses traumatic stressors with milder stressors and does not meet DSM-5 or ICD-11 criteria for a traumatic stressor.

Some of these problematic studies have been included in PTSD meta-analyses, thereby casting doubt on the validity of the meta-analytic findings ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2021 ). A meta-analysis of survivors of MERS and SARS estimated the rate of infection-related PTSD to be 32% ( Rogers et al., 2020 ). Meta-analytic estimates of PTSD prevalence during COVID-19 have ranged widely from 5% to 50% ( Asmundson and Taylor, 2021 ), with findings suggesting that PTSD during COVID-19 was more prevalent among healthcare workers (HCWs) and COVID-19 patients, as compared to the general population. In light of the aforementioned methodological problems, the validity of these findings remains in question.

Very few studies of COVID-19, SARS, or MERS assessed PTSD using a structured clinical interview, which is the diagnostic gold standard. An exception is an Italian study of patients presenting to a hospital emergency department with COVID-19, most of whom were severely ill and hospitalized ( Janiri et al., 2021 ). During their convalescence from COVID-19, patients were assessed with a diagnostic psychiatric interview. The prevalence of PTSD was 30%. Risk factors for COVID-19-related PTSD were female gender, past history of psychiatric disorders, delirium or agitation during the acute phase of COVID-19 infection, and persistent COVID-19 symptoms (i.e., Long COVID). For the latter, the symptoms were most commonly fatigue and dyspnea. Female gender, delirium, and a past history of psychopathology are all previously established risk factors for PTSD in general ( Taylor, 2017 ).

11.11.5.4. Prolonged Grief Disorder

A likely consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and probably other severe pandemics, is an increase in the prevalence of prolonged grief disorder, as diagnosed in ICD-11, also known as persistent complex bereavement disorder in DSM-5. This is a severe, chronic grief reaction characterized by persistent yearning and preoccupation with the deceased, combined with intense emotional distress about the loss (e.g., sadness, guilt, anger, blame) ( Shear and Gribbin, 2016 ). Research conducted prior to COVID-19 suggested that prolonged grief disorder occurs in about 10% of bereaved people ( Lundorff et al., 2017 ). The percentage might be higher for COVID-19 because the social restrictions of the pandemic curtailed normal expressions of grief and culturally prescribed mourning, with some people dying in hospitals or long-term care facilities, isolated from friends and family, and even funerals were held virtually. Prolonged grief disorder is likely to afflict a large number of people during COVID-19 because of the prevalence of the disorder among the bereaved (10%) and the large number of people bereaved as a result of COVID-19. As mentioned above, for every COVID-19 death there is an average of five bereaved immediate family members ( Verdery et al., 2020 ). Cognitive-behavioral interventions show promise in treating prolonged grief disorder ( Iglewicz et al., 2020 ).

11.11.5.5. Addictive Behaviors

Substance use and abuse increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included increases in alcohol, cannabis, and other drugs such as opiates ( Taylor et al., 2020d ). To illustrate, in a population-representative sample of over 3000 adults from the US and Canada, for people who reported consuming alcohol prior to COVID-19%, 23% reported that their consumption had increased during the pandemic ( Taylor et al., 2020d ). For people who consumed recreational drugs prior to the pandemic, 31% reported that their consumption had increased ( Taylor et al., 2020d ). Substance use and abuse were associated with various pandemic-related stressors, including the stress of social restrictions, such as the extremes of crowding or isolation, child care challenges, and pandemic-related socioeconomic stressors. Substance use and abuse were associated with the COVID Stress Syndrome ( Taylor et al., 2020d ).

Paralleling the pandemic-related increase in substance use and abuse in adults, there was an increase in video gaming disorder and internet gaming disorder among youth, particularly adolescents, likely reflecting an attempt to cope with the stress and boredom of stay-at-home restrictions ( Teng et al., 2021 ). For some people with gambling disorder, their gambling migrated to online gambling when in-person gambling was thwarted due to the pandemic-related closure of casinos ( Xuereb et al., 2021 ). Other problem gamblers reported a shift in addiction from gambling to substance abuse when casinos were closed ( Xuereb et al., 2021 ).

11.11.6. Burnout and Moral Injury Among Frontline Workers

11.11.6.1. burnout.

Workplace-related burnout, as defined in ICD-11, is a syndrome arising from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Burnout is characterized by three features, including (a) feeling depleted of energy and exhausted, (b) diminishing commitment to, or involvement with one's job, or negative or cynical attitudes toward one's job, and (c) a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment ( WHO, 2019 ). Workplace-related burnout among HCWs is a longstanding problem that worsens during health crizes such as pandemics, especially for frontline HCWs involved in the care of infected patients ( Chor et al., 2020 ). Work-related factors linked to high levels of burnout among HCWs include heavy workload and high job demands, working in unsafe settings (e.g., lack of personal protective equipment), lack of training and experience, limited opportunities for downtime (i.e., limited time for sleep, recreation, or time with friends or family), and lack of support from peers and management ( Morgantini et al., 2020 ).

11.11.6.2. Moral Injury

A phenomenon related to burnout is moral injury, also known as moral stress. Moral injury involves exposure to events or actions that violate one's moral code or values ( Litz et al., 2009 ). That is, moral injury refers to the psychological, social, and spiritual impact of events involving betrayal or transgression of one's own deeply held moral beliefs and values occurring in high stakes situations ( Phoenix Australia, 2020 ). Moral stressors are an unavoidable part of clinical practice where patients are numerous and resources may be comparatively scarce. Moral transgression events can involve people doing or failing to do something, or witnessing such transgressions unfold without being able to remedy the situation. Severe moral stress can involve, for example, a HCW having to decide which patients receive life-saving resources in limited supply, such as ventilators. Moral injury can involve reactions such as shame, guilt, anger, disgust, sadness, anxiety, self-condemnation, and demoralization ( Phoenix Australia, 2020 ). People experiencing moral injury may lose faith in their profession, workplace, or leaders, and often experience existential or spiritual crizes (e.g., loss of previously held religious beliefs, or loss of belief in a just world) ( Phoenix Australia, 2020 ). Moral injury can occur with or without burnout, although the two often co-occur. Moral injury is part of a broader constellation of work-related stressors encountered by HCWs during pandemics, including stigma against HCWs for fear that they are sources of infection ( Taylor et al., 2020 ).

11.11.6.3. Managing Burnout and Moral Injury

Both burnout and moral injury are risk factors for job turnover and absenteeism, and risk factors for various mental health problems including PTSD, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and substance-use disorders ( Phoenix Australia, 2020 ). Burnout has also been implicated in HCW suicide. Burnout is also a safety issue for patients in that burnout may undermine the ability of HCWs to provide optimal treatment. Burnout and moral injury involve more than simply a failure to cope with chronic workplace stressors; they involve HCWs being unable to provide the level of care needed by patients ( Phoenix Australia, 2020 ). Treatment of burnout and moral injury requires both structural resources (e.g., a safe, adequately supplied work environment), along with organizational support, social support (including peer support) and individual-focused interventions. Promising forms of the latter involve forms of CBT, self-care interventions, and stress management (e.g., Mollica et al., 2020 ). Organizational changes can help protect HCWs from burnout, such as changes that alleviate various workload burdens; for example, changes that lessen the administrative burdens.

11.11.7. Suicide

11.11.7.1. does suicide increase during pandemics.

Wasserman (1992) argued that pandemics involving social restrictions should lead to an increase in suicide because the restrictions decrease social integration, interaction, and support. Accordingly, there has been a great deal of research on whether pandemics and related outbreaks are associated with an increase in attempted or completed suicides. Determining the cause of suicide can be difficult. During COVID-19, for example, there has been an increase in drug overdose deaths ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020 ) and in such cases it can be difficult to determine whether the overdose was deliberate or accidental. In other cases, the intent is clearer, such as when a suicide note is left or when the manner of death clearly involved deliberate self-harm (e.g., use of firearms). The determination of whether a death is suicide is made by coroners and, inevitably, research into pandemic-related suicide largely depends on the accuracy of coroners' reports. Accordingly, the following findings need to be interpreted with caution.

The Russian flu coincided with a reportedly marked rise in suicide rate ( Honigsbaum, 2013 ). With regard to the Spanish flu, an analysis of US Census data from 1910 to 1920 revealed that suicide rates increased during the Spanish flu, even after controlling for the effects of the coincident World War I ( Wasserman, 1992 ). An analysis of US Spanish flu data found that social distancing (e.g., school and business closures) predicted suicide rates ( Stack and Rockett, 2021 ), presumably through lowering social interaction and social support in the context of rising financial hardship. During the SARS outbreak in 2003 in Hong Kong there was an increase in suicides among seniors aged over 65 years ( Yip et al., 2010 ). Here, the suicide rate of seniors tripled from previous years to 38 suicides per 100,000 people. A spike in suicides coincided with the peak of SARS infection. SARS was also associated with an increase in suicide in Taiwan ( Tzeng et al., 2020 ). During the 2009 Swine flu pandemic in South Korea, a time series investigation found that the development of influenza-like illness was predictive of suicide mortality ( Jung et al., 2021 ). Collectively, these findings suggest an increase in suicide during pandemics and related outbreaks.

The relationship between COVID-19 and suicide is less clear because, at the time of writing this article (August 2021) the pandemic was ongoing and most of the relevant research on suicide had been conducted during the early phases (first year) of the pandemic. The research has so far failed to resolve into a clear picture about the relationship between COVID-19 and suicide, with studies reporting either increases, no changes or decreases, or a fluctuating pattern during the first year of the pandemic. Numerous studies reported that suicidal ideation increased in the US and Canada during the first year of COVID-19 (e.g., Czeisler et al., 2021 ). Ethnic minorities, younger adults (18–24 years), unpaid caregivers for adults, and essential workers were more likely to report suicidal ideation in these studies. In Nepal, during lockdown early in COVID-19, the rate of suicide increased, as compared to pre-lockdown ( Pokhrel et al., 2021 ). In Germany, suicide rates in early 2020, as compared to previous years, were unusually high ( Radeloff et al., 2021 ). In Japan, the suicide rate initially declined early in the COVID-19 pandemic and then rose later in 2020 ( Tanaka and Okamoto, 2021 ). Many other studies, however, conducted during the first year of COVID-19, found that suicidal ideation or attempted or completed suicide had not increased from previous years (e.g., Radeloff et al., 2021 ).

The impact of pandemics on attempted and completed suicides likely depends on a variety of factors, including the suicide prevention measures and other barriers to self-harm that might be put in place. Accordingly, suicide rates may vary across pandemics, across time periods during a given pandemic (e.g., early vs. late), across economic impacts (e.g., suicide increases when there is massive unemployment), and the availability of self-harm mitigation resources (e.g., clinics, helplines). Given these considerations, it is not surprising that inconsistent findings have emerged during COVID-19. A coherent picture of the relationship between COVID-19 and suicide might not be available until some years after the pandemic ends particularly because some of the effects of COVID-19 (e.g., economic effects) might not be fully apparent for some years.

11.11.7.2. Healthcare Worker Suicide

Even during non-pandemic times, physicians tend to have higher suicide rates than the general population ( Dutheil et al., 2019 ). Physicians are often reluctant to seek mental health services out of career concerns, work culture, or a predisposition toward self-reliance ( Duarte et al., 2020 ). During both COVID-19 and the Spanish flu pandemics there were many cases in which physicians, nurses, paramedics, and other HCWs committed or attempted suicide ( Mortier et al., 2021 ). Risk factors for suicidal ideation or attempts included (a) being a frontline worker coming in contact with pandemic patients, (b) having suspected or confirmed pandemic infection and fear of transmitting this infection to others, including loved ones, (c) having a preexisting mental disorder, (d) having relationship or career difficulties, and (e) work-related stress, burnout, and moral injury ( Duarte et al., 2020 ; Mortier et al., 2021 ). It is unclear whether the suicide rate of HCWs increased during COVID-19, as compared to pre-pandemic periods. Nevertheless, there have been numerous reports of physicians and other HCWs taking their lives because they felt unable to provide adequate care for COVID-19 patients ( Moutier et al., 2021 ).

11.11.7.3. Suicide Mitigation

Suicide mitigation during COVID-19 has involved a variety of methods, including public education, government assistance to offset economic stressors, e-health resources (e.g., internet-based stress management advice, as described below), telephone hotlines, and preemptive approaches targeting at-risk populations, such as resiliency training for HCWs and outreach programs for socially isolated seniors ( Moutier et al., 2021 ). The methods for reducing burnout and moral injury may also reduce HCW suicide.

11.11.8. Vulnerability Factors for Pandemic-Related Emotional Disorders

11.11.8.1. biopsychosocial factors.

A range of factors can contribute to pandemic-related worsening or new-onset of psychological problems. Vulnerability factors for pandemic-related psychopathology include the biopsychosocial factors for psychopathology in general ( Taylor, 2019 ). Traumatic stressors during the pandemic (e.g., exposure to death on a wide scale, or personal life-threatening infection) are examples ( Taylor, 2017 , 2019 ). In other cases, gene-environment interactions may be at play, as discussed earlier with regard to OCD. Cognitive factors such as dysfunctional beliefs and misinterpretations about health-related stimuli can also play a role in exacerbating pandemic-related negative emotions, including health anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral factors in pandemic-related anxiety are discussed elsewhere ( Taylor, 2019 , 2021a , 2021c ). Personality traits can also pandemic-related emotional disorders, as described below.

11.11.8.2. Personality Traits

In the following sections, we focus on pre-pandemic vulnerability traits that may predispose people to experience pandemic-related psychopathology. The list of traits is not exhaustive but focuses rather on the most promising traits for understanding pandemic-related emotional disorders, as suggested by studies before and during COVID-19.

11.11.8.2.1. Negative Emotionality

Negative emotionality (i.e., neuroticism) is the tendency to experience negative emotions in response to all kinds of stressors, large and small. This broad trait is thought to confer vulnerability for many kinds of psychopathology ( Brandes et al., 2019 ). Negative emotionality predicted fears of infection in past pandemics and outbreaks ( Taylor, 2019 ) and was associated with heightened distress levels in the community during COVID-19 ( Taylor et al., 2021 ). Although negative emotionality is composed of narrow traits, research supports of bifactor model of negative emotionality, consisting of a general factor (negative emotionality) in addition to distinct, but correlated, narrow traits ( Brandes et al., 2019 ). Narrow traits include the intolerance of uncertainty.

11.11.8.2.2. Intolerance of Uncertainty

Intolerance of uncertainty is a personality trait characterized by the extent to which a person is anxious about uncertainties in daily life ( Birrell et al., 2011 ). People with high levels of intolerance of uncertainty have a strong desire for predictability and tend to worry about uncertainties ( Birrell et al., 2011 ). Research conducted before COVID-19 shows that a high degree of intolerance of uncertainty is associated with a range of disorders, including GAD, OCD, and other clinical conditions such as severe health anxiety ( Rosser, 2018 ). People with high levels of intolerance of uncertainty try to reduce uncertainty by behaviors such as checking and reassurance-seeking ( Dugas and Robichaud, 2007 ). In the case of health-related uncertainty, this can involve repeatedly checking the Internet for medical information, or persistently seeking reassurance from doctors. The intolerance of uncertainty is likely to be a particularly important contributor to pandemic-related anxiety. This is because pandemics are associated with all kinds of uncertainties, as discussed earlier. People with a high degree of intolerance of uncertainty tend to become highly anxious about the threat of infectious disease, especially if they perceive themselves as having limited control over the threat. The news media can fuel uncertainties with speculative reports about what “might” happen during an outbreak of infectious disease ( Taylor, 2019 ). During COVID-19, high levels of intolerance of uncertainty were associated with the COVID Stress Syndrome, panic buying, maladaptive coping, and high levels of distress during lockdown ( Taylor, 2021c ; Taylor et al., 2020a ). CBT for GAD ( Dugas and Robichaud, 2007 ) can be beneficial because one of the targets of treatment involves improving one's tolerance for uncertainty.

11.11.8.2.3. Boredom Proneness

Lockdown, quarantine, and other social distancing restrictions in which people are required to remain home for long periods are conducive to boredom. Boredom is an unpleasant state of being weary and restless, where time drags and nothing maintains one's interest or focus of attention. Boredom motivates people to seek out new experiences, even if those experiences have negative consequences ( Bench and Lench, 2019 ). Boredom proneness is a trait characterized by the tendency to experience boredom in a wide range of situations ( Farmer and Sundberg, 1986 ). Boredom proneness is correlated with (a) the tendency to experience negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and irritability, (b) substance-use disorders and related conditions such as problem gambling, mobile phone addiction, and internet addiction, (c) low adherence to home-schooling during pandemic-related school closures, and (d) the tendency to disregard social distancing guidelines (e.g., Boylan et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2020 ). Little is known about the best way to reduce boredom proneness. It is negatively correlated with mindfulness ( Regan et al., 2020 ), which raises questions of whether the two are causally related and whether training in mindfulness might reduce boredom proneness.

11.11.8.2.4. Stress Buffering Traits

Some personality traits are protective, stress-buffering factors that enable the person to cope with life stressors without developing emotional disorders. Trait optimism and trait resilience are buffering factors against stressors in general. Research conducted during COVID-19 suggests that trait optimism and trait resilience modulate (inhibit) the effects of negative emotionality on COVID-19-related distress such as the COVID Stress Syndrome ( Taylor et al., 2021 ).

It could be argued that introversion is a protective factor during lockdown because introverted people, compared to extraverts, may be better able to endure the social isolation of lockdown because introverts do not require or desire high levels of social interaction. However, COVID-19 research conducted during lockdown suggests that introversion/extraversion is not a strong predictor of distress; instead, other personality traits, particularly negative emotionality and intolerance of uncertainty, are more important predictors ( Taylor et al., 2021 ).

11.11.8.2.5. Other Personality Traits

Several other traits have been examined in relation to pandemics and other outbreaks. These include various anxiety-related traits such as trait anxiety, harm avoidance, the overestimation of threat, perfectionism, and anxiety sensitivity ( Taylor, 2019 ). Further research is needed to better understand how these traits are related to pandemic-related distress.

11.11.8.3. The Behavioral Immune System

Pathogens such as viruses are too small to directly observe and so a person's biological immune system is insufficient for avoiding exposure to these threats. It is necessary to use perceptible cues to detect and avoid pathogens. Such cues include noxious smells, visual stimuli, and auditory cues, like the sights and sounds of people coughing. The behavioral immune system (BIS) is conceptualized as a system for detecting such cues ( Schaller and Park, 2011 ). When cues are detected, this triggers an emotional response (e.g., fear, disgust), which motivates the person to avoid or escape the aversive cues. The BIS is biased toward false positives (i.e., false alarms) in detecting pathogens, which is adaptive to the extent that it minimizes exposure to potentially fatal pathogens ( Schaller and Park, 2011 ). Thus, the BIS can be sensitive to cues that only superficially resemble environmental signs of infection; for example, the sight of someone sneezing is a superficial disease cue that could be due to any of a number of things (e.g., allergies, dust exposure, or the common cold).

There are individual differences in BIS sensitivity, known as the perceived vulnerability to disease ( Duncan et al., 2009 ). People who have a high degree of perceived vulnerability to disease tend to be excessively worried about becoming infected during a pandemic such as COVID-19 ( Taylor et al., 2020a ), and also tend to generally worry about their health ( Taylor, 2019 ). Perceived vulnerability to disease is also tied to racism. A common way of acquiring an infectious disease is from other people, especially when foreign groups intermingle, in which one group introduces a disease that the other group has never encountered and has no immunity against. Given that many infections are transmitted through interpersonal interactions, the BIS is said to have evolved to influence social attitudes and interactions, including ethnocentrism and negative attitudes toward immigrants and other foreigners ( Schaller and Park, 2011 ). Consistent with this, research shows that when people feel threatened about becoming infected with some pathogen, they tend to avoid or stigmatize out-groups (i.e., a group which a person does not belong to, or identify with) ( Taylor, 2019 ). Thus, out-groups are blamed for causing or spreading diseases, such as being blamed for lack of hygiene, education, self-control, or other factors such as cultural practices. Moreover, people who are most frightened of infection are most likely to avoid foreigners and have negative attitudes toward such people ( Taylor, 2019 ; Taylor et al., 2020a ).

If a population is threatened with severe infection, the BIS will be activated in almost everyone, with some people having particularly intense levels of activation. This suggests that during times of pandemic there will be a general increase in stigmatization and xenophobia, where foreigners and other out-groups are blamed for being sources of infection. Indeed, racism was a common feature of past pandemics and other outbreaks ( Taylor, 2019 ). Racism and other forms of xenophobia were widely documented during COVID-19, including a number of racist attacks against Asians in the US ( Man, 2020 ). Xenophobic fears that foreigners are spreading SARS-CoV-2 is also a feature of the COVID Stress Syndrome ( Taylor et al., 2020a ).

11.11.9. Long-Term Effects of Infection

11.11.9.1. long covid.

Long COVID was a term coined by people who suffered from persistent COVID-19 symptoms; that is, symptoms persisting even after the person had recovered from the acute phase of infection. The term was created in an effort to raise awareness among members of the medical community and government leaders about persistent COVID-19-related symptoms ( Callard and Perego, 2021 ). The diagnostic criteria for Long COVID are imprecize in terms of the nature and duration of symptoms. There have been efforts at developing specific criteria ( National Institute for Clinical Excellence, 2020 ), but further research is needed. Despite this limitation, the available research provides an approximate indication of the prevalence of various symptoms.

A prospective study of over 4000 cases of COVID-19 found that symptoms persisted for at least 2 months in 5% of patients, and for at least 3 months in 2% ( Sudre et al., 2021 ). Here, Long COVID was characterized by fatigue, headache, dyspnea, and anosmia. The odds of having persistent symptoms were higher with greater age and body mass index, and female gender ( Sudre et al., 2021 ). Other studies reported that a quarter or more of COVID-19 survivors described having at least one persistent symptom for at least 2 months after disease onset (e.g., Carfì et al., 2020 ). Patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 were most likely to have persistent symptoms. More than 75% of hospitalized patients reported symptoms 6 months after getting ill despite having no detectable virus load, and even patients who initially experienced mild symptoms may develop Long COVID ( Ludvigsson, 2021 ). Cases of Long COVID are not restricted to adults. Pediatric cases (ages 9–15 years) have been described, where symptoms persisted for at least 6–8 months after an initial diagnosis of COVID-19 ( Ludvigsson, 2021 ). Common persistent symptoms included fatigue, dyspnea, palpitations, headaches, and concentration difficulties, which were similar to those reported in adults.

Clinical accounts of Long COVID suggest that there may be periods of remission and relapse, along with the emergence of new symptoms ( Altmann and Boyton, 2021 ). In such cases, it can be challenging to determine which symptoms are due to COVID-19 and which are coincidental, perhaps due to some pathophysiology other than that associated with COVID-19. A further issue for investigation is whether there are different pathophysiological types of Long COVID. Long COVID in which fatigue is a central feature has been compared to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. Although Long COVID could be a post-viral form of CFS, it is hazardous to label Long COVID as simply “chronic fatigue”, because such a label could dissuade medical practitioners from adequately investigating the cause of the symptoms. With regard to treatment, aside from medical management, CBT for chronic fatigue has been suggested, although its efficacy in reducing COVID-related fatigue has been questioned ( Vink and Vink-Niese, 2020 ).

11.11.9.2. Comparison with Other Outbreaks

Similar to Long COVID, there is evidence of long-term effects of SARS and MERS. For example, there were descriptions of patients assessed 3 months or longer after recovering from acute SARS or MERS who reported persistent fatigue, breathlessness, and other symptoms such as concentration difficulties ( Ahmed et al., 2020 ). Similarly, historical records suggest that there were long forms of the Russian and Spanish flu. Post-infection chronic fatigue was observed in both pandemics. Commenting on patients seen during the Russian flu pandemic, one physician observed that “many patients recovering from a case of influenza which had run a normal unchecked course frequently suffered for six or nine months, or even a year, from pronounced symptoms such as depression, neurasthenia, neuritis, and other ills which we could only describe as ‘nervous’” ( Turner, 1919 , p. 77).

11.11.10. Managing and Treating Pandemic-Related Psychopathology

11.11.10.1. understanding coping in order to enhance resilience.

Resilience is the ability to successfully adapt to stress and adversity. It involves, among other things, the ability to implement adaptive coping skills. Understanding naturally occurring patterns of coping during pandemics is important for understanding how to improve the resilience of communities. Human beings are social creatures and so lockdown and related social distancing interventions can lead to loneliness, depression, and other forms of distress. Not surprisingly, higher levels of social support are associated with lower levels of lockdown-related distress ( Taylor et al., 2020a ). With regard to coping during COVID-19, several salient findings have emerged. Adaptive coping behaviors, including problem-solving (e.g., trying new activities), adopting a healthy lifestyle, and emotion regulation skills (e.g., limiting exposure to distressing news media), tend to be associated with lower levels of COVID-19-related distress ( Fullana et al., 2020 ). CBT can improve resilience in various ways, such as training people in coping skills ( Joyce et al., 2018 ), including the coping skills associated with lower pandemic-related distress.

11.11.10.2. Enhancing the Resilience of Healthcare Workers

During COVID-19, increases in physical activity and exercise were among the most commonly used coping behaviors of HCWs, although many also expressed interest in resiliency training programs ( Shechter et al., 2020 ). Military organizations, such as the US Department of Defense, have developed training programs for enhancing the resiliency of soldiers and medical staff working in theaters of combat. Recently, there have been efforts to adapt these procedures for improving the resiliency of HCWs during COVID-19 ( Albott et al., 2020 ). This involved a combination of educational webinars, skills training, and structural changes to workplace operations. HCWs received education about the nature and risk factors for workplace-related burnout and PTSD. Skills training involved education about simple, practical, readily implemented coping strategies (e.g., reaching out to colleagues, positive self-talk, limiting exposure to disturbing news media, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and other stress-reducing activities such as yoga or meditation) ( Albott et al., 2020 ). Stress reactions were framed as normal reactions that one should expect and plan to address. In addition, self-assessment tools can be used to improve awareness among HCWs of whether they are developing problems such as burnout and whether they should seek help ( Wei et al., 2020 ).

Structural changes to the workplace can reduce the demands placed on HCWs, thereby reducing workplace stress. Changes to the workplace environment may involve, among other things, the use of peer support groups and other forms of social support, including an on-site mental health consultant, who could facilitate training in stress management, provide additional support, and coordinate referrals for external professional consultation ( Albott et al., 2020 ).

The Battle Buddies component of the HCW resiliency training ( Albott et al., 2020 ) is particularly promising because it is simple to implement and likely to be very useful in dealing with workplace stress. It involves HCWs pairing up, such that pairs are similar in demographics, occupational roles, and seniority. Buddies are matched as far as possible on these variables because the nature of occupational stressors can differ considerably across demographics, roles, and seniority (e.g., people in managerial positions face different stressors than people in junior positions). Members of each pair are able to debrief with one another each day, brainstorming potential solutions to problems and providing mutual support. During daily check-ins, buddies share their reactions to stressors (e.g., “I'm afraid I'm going to bring the virus home”), validate each other's experiences (rather than debating or arguing), offer their perspectives and discuss possible solutions, and encourage the seeking of additional help if stressors or anxieties escalate ( Albott et al., 2020 ). Battle Buddies are selected specifically not to be close friends or confidantes (or spouses) because sometimes difficult conversations or observations must be made without the fear of jeopardizing close friendships. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of resiliency training programs for reducing burnout and other psychological problems in HCWs.

11.11.10.3. Community-wide Interventions: the Rise of E-Health

Pandemics, especially those in which social restrictions are imposed, impact the delivery of mental health services and increase the number of people requiring such services ( O'Shea, 2020 ). Accordingly, there is a need for free, widely available, and remotely accessible mental health services during a pandemic and likely afterward. Face-to-face psychological consultations may not be possible due to social distancing restrictions, and the sheer magnitude of people requiring such services makes one-to-one consultations untenable.

During pandemics, methods are needed for rapidly providing services widely, for a range of psychological problems. For the most part, the development of these during COVID-19 was reactive rather than proactive; that is, programs were not developed in anticipation of the rise of pandemic-related mental health needs but rather arose once it became apparent that there was widespread distress in the community. Such services tended to be piecemeal in nature; that is, the development of a single type of service or intervention (e.g., a phone app for stress management) instead of developing a comprehensive approach to mental health.

Although piecemeal approaches are unlikely to be sufficient in addressing community-wide pandemic-related distress, studies of specific interventions have identified promising interventions for inclusion in broader programs. Research has demonstrated the value of online cognitive-behavioral reappraisal exercises for reducing distress during COVID-19 ( Wang et al., 2021 ). Reappraisal exercises are simple, adaptable, efficient, and among the most effective cognitive interventions for changing emotional responses ( Webb et al., 2012 ). Two types of reappraisal were found to be effective in reducing distress during COVID-19, including reconstrual and repurposing ( Wang et al., 2021 ). Reconstrual involves changing how the situation is construed or mentally represented. For example, instead of saying to oneself, “We will never get through this pandemic”, one could say “I know from world history that keeping calm and carrying on gets us through tough times.” Repurposing involves focusing on potentially positive outcomes of a situation. For example, instead of saying to oneself, “Lockdown is horrible,” one could say, “Lockdown helps me realize the importance of social connections and helps me identify the most important people in my life.”

Simple cognitive restructuring methods, while useful, are not new in their application to pandemic-related distress. During the Spanish flu, simple cognitive strategies were also recommended for anxious people, involving distraction (“Think of something else”) and positive thinking, and reappraisal strategies (e.g., warning people about misinterpreting cold symptoms as indications of a far more serious infection) ( Literary Digest, 1918 ).

Regarding other interventions, research shows that a brief online self-guided cognitive-behavioral intervention is useful in reducing excessive worry about COVID-19 ( Wahlund et al., 2020 ). Mindfulness training, which can be delivered digitally, also shows promise in improving resilience during COVID-19 ( Yuan, 2021 ). Empathy-focused telephone calls delivered by lay counselors reduced loneliness, depression, and anxiety in housebound adults during COVID-19 ( Kahlon et al., 2021 ). Brief CBT, delivered online or as a phone application can improve sleep quality for people suffering from insomnia ( Cheng et al., 2020 ).

Various types of online stress management interventions, as used in non-pandemic times, have been shown to be useful in reducing distress ( Amanvermez et al., 2020 ), and can be adapted for managing distress during COVID-19 lockdown ( Jasti et al., 2020 ). Innovative interventions using online-administered virtual reality are also under development, providing interventions such as imagery-augmented relaxation exercises ( Riva and Riva, 2020 ). Videoconferencing methods can also be used to deliver, for suitable patients, cognitive restructuring and exposure therapies for PTSD ( Fina et al., 2020 ). For people hospitalized for COVID-19 but not on a ventilator, preliminary evidence suggests that either in-person or online CBT can reduce distress ( Shaygan et al., 2021 ).

In summary, there are a number of promising treatment resources that can be accessed by large numbers of people, including those living in remote settings, far from the consulting rooms of major metropolitan areas. Clearly, however, there are limits to e-health and some patients will require inpatient hospitalization, such as for suicidal ideation, severe depression, psychosis, or substance dependence.

11.11.10.4. Comprehensive Mental Health Management

During COVID-19, arguably the most comprehensive multicomponent program for pandemic-related mental health problems was developed in Chengdu, China, by He and colleagues ( He et al., 2020 ). This program was rapidly deployed in the early months of COVID-19. Administered by a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals, the program was designed to reach members of the community as well as at-risk groups. The program had four main components:

• TV and radio programs, broadcast nightly, discussing COVID-19-related psychological problems and offering information and advice. These were supplemented and promoted through Chinese social media platforms (i.e., WeChat, Weibo, and TikTok), drawing the attention of millions of viewers.
• 24-h hotline consultations were provided free through six dedicated hotlines. Complex or urgent cases were referred on for consultation sessions.
• Online video consultation sessions involved the use of psychological interventions and pharmacotherapy. Cases were referred from the hotline or from COVID-19 hospitals.
• On-site (hospital or clinic) crisis intervention for two groups of people: (a) COVID-19 confirmed, suspected, or quarantined cases who showed signs of psychological distress, and (b) frontline HCWs, who were provided with training in stress management.

Preliminary data showed that this rapidly deployed, comprehensive program was feasible, well-received by the community, and attracted large numbers of calls and consultations, sometimes numbering hundreds of hotline calls per day ( He et al., 2020 ). The merits of the program require further evaluation. The program will likely be insufficient for treating all types of pandemic-related psychopathology, particularly for patients requiring inpatient admission and patients requiring specialized psychological services. To illustrate the latter, specialty clinics have emerged, offering CBT for chronic fatigue associated with Long COVID ( Vink and Vink-Niese, 2020 ; and see below). Accordingly, the comprehensive program developed in Chengdu could be augmented in various ways, such as by adding, as needed, specialized treatment services and in-patient psychiatric services.

11.11.11. Future Directions for Research and Clinical Practice

11.11.11.1. covid-19 as catalyst.

COVID-19 has served as a catalyst, altering the delivery and scope of clinical psychological services. Regarding delivery, treatment approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic have involved an increasing use of e-health (e.g., cognitive-behavioral programs via phone or internet) as well as interventions to boost the resilience of frontline workers. Psychologists and other healthcare professionals rapidly adapted to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 by moving their clinical practices to online or telephone formats when face-to-face consultations became impractical during stay-at-home and related restrictions. This enhanced a trend already in place prior to COVID-19 for practitioners to increasingly rely on e-health forms of delivery. The treatment program developed by He and colleagues (2020) , as described earlier, serves as an exemplary model of how mental health needs in the community can be rapidly and widely addressed with the aid of e-health. This program highlighted the importance of planning for forthcoming problems, such as planning to deal with a surge in mental health problems; that is, being proactive in order to anticipate and prepare for problems, rather than taking a reactive approach in which problems are not addressed until they become too great to be ignored. Research is needed to evaluate the potential merits of proactive versus reactive approaches to developing clinics and other clinical services.

COVID-19 shifted the scope of clinical practice, with a growing number of patients requiring help for pandemic-related anxiety and for symptoms associated with PTSD, OCD, Long COVID, and prolonged grief disorder. Treatments for these disorders require specialized clinical training. To the extent that there is a shortage of suitably qualified clinicians, there will be a shortfall in meeting the mental health needs of communities. Based on COVID-19 research so far accumulated, there will likely be a strong demand for mental health services during the post-pandemic period. To meet these needs, clinical training programs may need to alter their focus by giving greater emphasis to pandemic-related disorders such as PTSD and prolonged grief disorder.

To better meet the clinical psychological needs of communities, the scope of clinical practice needs to change in other ways, such as in the type and mode of delivery of psychoeducation. Psychoeducation is a key ingredient of clinical practice, in which patients gain, among other things, a better understanding of the nature and treatment of their problems. During pandemics, patients may ask for advice from their treating clinicians about a range of pandemic-related issues, such as issues related to personal safety (e.g., mask-wearing, vaccine uptake), advice on coping (e.g., what to do if there is an outbreak of panic buying in one's community), issues about managing anxieties about returning to work or resuming social recreational activities, and issues about how patients might communicate with friends or family members who subscribe to conspiracy theories or other extreme beliefs. Ideally, clinicians would be informed and able to provide evidence-based advice on these issues, tailored to the specifics of the patient's circumstances. Patients may also benefit from advice about how to manage the infodemic; that is, advice about how to locate and evaluate authoritative, reliable health-related information (see Taylor, 2021b ).

With the rise of e-health, the question arises about the best way of delivering psychoeducation in order to address the needs of communities. For issues relevant to many people (e.g., stress management), psychoeducation could be delivered via the news or social media (as per He et al., 2020 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, community-wide psychoeducation was implemented on an ad hoc, unsystematic basis, with some psychological organizations producing psychoeducational fact sheets for consumers, and psychologists and other mental health practitioners offering advice to the public via news stories, social media, and other formats. This approach could be refined for future pandemics and other disasters. For example, leading psychological associations could set up an expert panel to provide advice to the public about important psychological matters, with an emphasis on providing practical, evidence-based guidance. That is, moving away from glib, pop psychological pronouncements seen in midday talk shows toward evidence-based advice that is presented in a way that engages the audience without sensationalizing the subject matter.

As part of psychoeducation, communities need to be made aware of online and other mental health resources. Many distressed people during COVID-19 did not make use of mental health resources (e.g., online programs) ( Taylor et al., 2020a ), possibly because of a lack of awareness of such programs, or difficulty deciding which programs would be useful. Clinical psychologists can address this problem by offering authoritative advice, both in their consultations with patients and in broader community work (e.g., public service announcements, media interviews).

11.11.11.2. Psychological Field Clinics

Pandemics, just like natural disasters, require clinicians to be flexible and creative, adapting established treatments in non-traditional ways in order to meet the mental health needs of communities. The rise of e-health is one example. During pandemics such as COVID-19, there is also a need for psychological field clinics, just like the temporary, “pop-up” testing and vaccination clinics during COVID-19. These clinics were placed throughout communities in order to make them readily available to the public. In a similar way, temporary psychological field clinics could be established to address the mental health needs of any particular widespread emergency, whether it be a pandemic or some other stressor. Such clinics could serve as drop-in resources for people wanting information or advice about psychological issues, including advice about referral resources. To enhance their utilization, psychological field clinics could be integrated into medical clinics; for example, a pandemic testing clinic could have an on-site psychological clinic, offering brief consultations and advice about referrals and other useful resources for people. Research on health anxiety shows that such psychological clinics are more likely to be utilized by people if the clinics are integrated into general medical clinics ( Taylor, 2019 ).

11.11.11.3. Psychological Triage

The concept of triage is well-developed in general medicine. Here, the degree of severity and urgency of cases are evaluated in order to determine the course of treatment in circumstances in which the demand for medical resources exceeds their availability. Regarding the triage of psychological services, there are screen-and-treat protocols in which the degree and type of intervention increase with the severity and complexity of the patient's problems. An example of a pandemic-related screen-and-treat protocol appears in Fig. 1 ( Taylor, 2019 ). Here, interventions may involve some combination of educational online materials, self-help phone apps or internet self-guided cognitive-behavioral programs, and telehealth (e.g., videoconferencing) sessions with a mental health professional. This protocol, which was developed prior to the onset of COVID-19, has many similarities to the protocol independently developed and implemented in Chengdu by He et al. (2020) . Details of screen-and-treat approaches, along with a discussion of screening methods and patient handouts, are discussed elsewhere ( He et al., 2020 ; Taylor, 2019 ). Such protocols can be readily adapted to the specifics of a particular community-wide stressor (e.g., a pandemic), although the protocols may need to be fine-tuned and evaluated to ensure they meet the mental health needs associated with a given stressor.

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Screen-and-treat flowchart for targeting mental health problems.

11.11.12. Conclusion

Pandemics are complex, dynamic events involving a range of stressors that can seriously affect mental health. Pandemics tend to be particularly stressful when it becomes necessary for governments to impose social restrictions, such as stay-at-home orders. Those restrictions are necessary to stem the spread of infection, but impact the mental health of many people. Although most people are resilient to stress, a substantial minority are likely to have psychological disorders that may persist if untreated. This includes worsening or new onset of various disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, PTSD, OCD, and prolonged grief disorder. Frontline HCWs, compared to the community at large, are especially vulnerable to developing symptoms of these disorders. Additionally, people diagnosed with COVID-19 are at risk for both PTSD and Long COVID. To treat pandemic-related clinical problems, it was necessary for clinicians to adapt existing practices (e.g., face-to-face psychotherapy) to meet the challenges of pandemics; for example, by moving to e-health. COVID-19 served as a catalyst for such developments. Further research is needed to refine and evaluate these methods. Research is needed to evaluate and refine specific interventions and the comprehensive treatment programs that contain these interventions. It is also necessary to identify and overcome potential barriers to mental healthcare, including financial barriers to accessing mental health services. Widespread, freely available e-health services may help offset this problem. Further research is also needed to refine and evaluate mental health services for various vulnerable populations, including the elderly, children, indigent and incarcerated individuals, and ethnic minorities.

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12 moving essays about life during coronavirus
The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good ...
Persuasive Essay About Covid19
Whatever your point of view is, writing a persuasive essay about it is a good way of organizing your thoughts and persuading others. A persuasive essay about the Covid-19 vaccine could consider the benefits of getting vaccinated as well as the potential side effects. Below are some examples of persuasive essays on getting vaccinated for Covid-19.
What We Learned About Ourselves During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. "The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry ...
Impact of COVID-19 on people's livelihoods, their health and our food
Reading time: 3 min (864 words) The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty ...
12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times
Future historians may look back on the journals, essays and art that ordinary people are creating now to tell the story of life during the coronavirus. But writing can also be deeply therapeutic.
What Life Was Like for Students in the Pandemic Year
Miles' teacher shared his experience and those of her other students in a recent piece for Education Week. In these short essays below, teacher Claire Marie Grogan's 11th grade students at ...
How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay
Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form. To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App ...
Seven short essays about life during the pandemic
My alarm sounds at 8:15 a.m. I open my eyes and take a deep breath. I wiggle my toes and move my legs. I do this religiously every morning. Today, marks day 74 of staying at home. My mornings are ...
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This year, students applying to college through the Common App will be able to submit an optional essay detailing their experiences (both positive and negative) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The most important lesson I have learned from having to live through the coronavirus pandemic is that not everything goes your way. But no matter what's happening, you must take control of the ...
My Life Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic
My content explains what my life was like during the last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected my life both positively and negatively. It also explains what it was like when I graduated from High School and how I want the future generations to remember the Class of 2020. Class assignment, Western Civilization (Dr. Marino).
What Students Are Saying About Living Through a Pandemic
March 26, 2020. The rapidly-developing coronavirus crisis is dominating global headlines and altering life as we know it. Many schools worldwide have closed. In the United States alone, 55 million ...
How the Pandemic Has Changed Our Lives
From lifestyle changes to better eating habits, people are using this time to get healthier in many areas. Since the pandemic started, nearly two-thirds of the survey's participants (62%) say ...
Essay: What is your experience during the pandemic?
During pandemic, my family and I staying at home. it's so hard to believe that the covid 19.many people are affected and needed to be. extra careful. it's so lonely many things are I've missed but we need to follow the instructions. of the municipality. #CARRY ON LEARNING.
Coronavirus: My Experience During the Pandemic
The coronavirus is a virus that originated in China, reached the U.S. and eventually spread all over the world by January of 2020. The common symptoms of the virus include shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, headache, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, vomiting and nausea. As it has been established, it might take up to 14 days for the ...
9 Valuable Lessons We've Learned During The Pandemic
5. Slow down. We've realized that not only is it OK to slow down, but it's actually essential. When the pandemic hit, it was as if the whole world was running on overdrive and then, all at once, it crashed. We allowed it to get this way because we have a tendency to align our worth with our busyness.
D.C. students wrote essays about pandemic challenges
I was a judge in a recent essay contest for D.C. public and charter school students in fourth through ninth grades. The theme was about the challenges they faced during the pandemic, and I was ...
my experience during covid-19 pandemic essay
On top of that, the Japanese culture of respecting others' health and safety clearly shined during this pandemic. Japanese people, even before Covid-19, wear masks commonly in order to avoid any possible transmission of diseases. So when the Covid-19 hit, the Japanese population was ready and the fact that everyone is wearing a mask makes it ...
How Did the Covid-19 Pandemic Affect You, Your Family and Your
It has been four years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The New York Times writes of the anniversary:. Four years ago today, society began ...
Essays reveal experiences during pandemic, unrest
The COVID-19 outbreak has had a huge impact on both physical and social well-being of a lot of Americans, including me. Stress has been governing the lives of so many civilians, in particular students and workers. In addition to causing a lack of motivation in my life, quarantine has also brought a wave of anxiety.
One Student's Perspective on Life During a Pandemic
Tiana Nguyen '21 is a Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. She is majoring in Computer Science, and is the vice president of Santa Clara University's Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter. The world has slowed down, but stress has begun to ramp up. In the beginning of quarantine, as the world slowed down ...
Essay on life during pandemic
So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it's sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we'll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and ...
Becoming a Teacher: What I Learned about Myself During the Pandemic
Fortunately, the pandemic enabled me to view my courses on play and curriculum as a big "look into the mirror" to discern what matters and what was important about becoming a teacher. In my course on play, we were asked to create an artifact that symbolized our image of the child, which required me to think deeply about my perception of ...
Pandemics and Clinical Psychology
11.11.2. Pandemic-Related Stressors. Uncertainty is a pervasive, abstract stressor during pandemics (Taylor, 2021b).Examples include uncertainties about whether a disease outbreak will become a pandemic, how dangerous it will be, whether there are effective prophylactic measures, how long the pandemic will last, who is infected (e.g., who is an asymptomatic carrier), and whether the pandemic ...