covid recovery

Between the strikes in the UK and the increasing COVID numbers, I can’t say the environment has been very supportive of anything reminiscent of a work flow in my PhD world.

I’m recovering right now from my second COVID infection, so my own personal wellbeing is hinged upon my ability to rest and not attempt to work through the virus. Prior to knowing of my infection, I was planning to honor this round of UCU strikes as well as show solidarity to the junior doctors, teachers, and rail workers striking. That has helped me manage my stress levels around productivity and accomplishments while recovering, which is such a shift in my own thoughts and attitudes toward a personal COVID infection.

There’s no one in my professional world that is pushing me to work through it, no one who is prioritizing outputs over my health and wellbeing. And yet I find this internal pressure to do more than rest, even when I know the science connects resting to a reduction of long-COVID possibilities.

I think back to 2020, 2021 and the way we knew less about the virus’ attack on our bodies, less about the connection to rest in the first two weeks of infection and we encouraged each other to rest. We made lists of podcasts and playlists and shows and books for one another - even strangers on the internet. It almost seems like I internalized that attitude shift in the absence of people supporting each other in mass in public. That if the strikes and my infection didn’t line up, I would be not that kind to myself in my own brain for needing to pause my survey distribution, for not finishing up a blog, for not keeping my inbox at zero.

It is amazing how public health and capitalism intersect, and what narrative becomes louder in the silence.