No, I Won’t Stop Writing About Coronavirus

And I don’t need to be a public health expert to share my voice.

Photo by Sergei Wing on Unsplash

Lately I’ve seen a lot of angsty writers on Medium sharing grievances about the flood of content related to the coronavirus crisis. It seems like it is now more difficult to get curated and published without addressing the crisis in some way.

This is understandably frustrating to those who don’t feel like they have anything to add to the conversation. And it is unnerving for people to be dispensing and following advice from non-expert sources.

But the thing is, you don’t need to be a public health or virology or policy expert to share your feelings on coronavirus. So while I am not going to write about social distancing, or whether or not Gov. DeSantis should enforce a statewide lockdown, or how COVID 2019 is or is not different from the common cold, I am going to write about the crisis.

Because you know what? It’s on my mind. And it’s probably on your mind too.

Two days ago I got furloughed from my comfortable writing-from-home job. Two weeks ago my fiance was furloughed from both of her jobs — one as a server and one as an afterschool teacher.

There are now 3 billion people under COVID-related lockdown.

How often do I have the chance to contribute to the discourse about something which is on everyone’s mind?

How often can I be nearly guaranteed that my reader will have a shared experience with which they can relate my story to theirs?

How often do I have the chance to contribute to a discussion which is genuinely new and ever-evolving?