The New York Times newspaper published an article about how people around the world start keeping their diaries with their experiences of living through a pandemic. Their diaries are told in words and pictures: pantry inventories, window views, questions about the future, concerns about the present. Some diarists record statistics: the number of infections, the number of deaths. Others keep diaries that are part shopping list, part doodle pad.
Anna Temkina, a professor of public health and gender at the European University at St. Petersburg, started project called “the virus diaries,” part of a broader effort by the university to study quarantine’s effect on daily life.
“Saturday — a normal crowd out and about,” she wrote. “I don’t notice any increased caution. People are walking without distancing; two military men shake hands; a man and woman my age greet each other with a kiss.”
The full article is available here.