A communal pandemic diary

With stories about the coronavirus pandemic dominating news cycles since last March, there is a rich trove of accounts of individuals’ responses to the virus for historians to pick through.

A team led by a pair of professors from the University of Connecticut and Brown University is getting a head start on what will one day be a history project.

Since May, the Pandemic Journaling Project has amassed thousands of entries submitted by hundreds of individuals primarily in the U.S. and Mexico, but contributions are coming in from all over the globe. Participants are also answering weekly survey questions and contributing significant quantities of qualitative data, which researchers will monitor to better understand the pandemic’s impact.

Each week, the project’s website features a selection of posts by participants who have given their permission. These posts chronicle users’ thoughts and feelings on everything from the mundanity of Zoom meetings to the complexities and frustrations of signing up for a vaccine.

“The hospital is full, and we are holding patients in the emergency department,” one entry reads. “We had a brief decrease in COVID patients, but that did not last long.” Another: “With social distancing measures in place, I feel as though there is a piece of semi-opaque glass between me and the outside world. While I may still be able to express myself and behave the same way, the message does not hold the same weight as there exists bigger fish to fry.”

Participants are helping document humanity’s battle with the side effects of rolling lockdown orders, oscillating infection rates and surging anxieties. They’re assisting in an unfiltered draft of history in real time, presenting an unvarnished truth in such a way that the sum will be greater than its parts.