Inspired by a similar online project called ‘Humans of New York’, the Humans of Covid-19 Instagram account was started in April by junior doctor Benjamin Rosen, after he became frustrated at the public’s reaction to social distancing.
Ever since, it has been sharing the experiences of doctors, drivers and porters throughout the health crisis through direct interviews.
The project has grown throughout the pandemic, and now more than 120 people have been interviewed by a team of four from across the UK.
“I was quite frustrated with what I’d been seeing during my time off, how people weren’t socially distancing,” said Dr Rosen, who works in a busy London A&E department.
He said: “I was frustrated that no matter how many facts, or how much reason we were trying to use, to inform and convince people that this was really happening, that it was being ignored anyway, and society had almost moved on beyond caring what experts said, or what politicians said.
“I thought, here we all are, surrounded by this and we have these difficult experiences that we are going through right now.”
He immediately began interviewing his colleagues and has since discovered that “frontline workers are extraordinary storytellers”.
One of the latest interviews features his close friend Cameron, who talked about working alongside his girlfriend Antonia in a resuscitation bay during the pandemic.
Dr Rosen said: “It wasn’t always the plan, but he decided to talk about her and I thought it was wonderful.
“There is a lot of warmth in a lot of these stories, as well as about ways of coping with all of this adversity. And when I asked him what had been his guiding light, what had got him through, he really had nothing else that he could possibly think of that was more important than his girlfriend who had been with him, side by side, throughout the whole thing.
“I think to a slightly lesser extent, this is how we feel about each other at work, we’ve become so close as colleagues.”
It is currently unclear how many health and social workers have died during the pandemic, however Amnesty International estimates the UK is among the countries to have recorded the highest number of Covid-19 health worker deaths, at more than 540 in England and Wales. Ireland has the highest rate of infection from coronavirus of all health workers globally.
Dr Rosen, who had the virus himself in April, said: “I think stories like that really show the added cost of Covid — the morbidity, and the mortality. There is also how taxing this can be on the mental health of healthcare professionals, and that for me stood out in a huge way.”
He wanted to use the page to remind the public that the pandemic is far from over.
He has shared stories including that of a doctor who cried in a store cupboard after a difficult night dealing with dying patients.
“A lot of the most difficult things about Covid have not changed at all. We are still seeing patients, thankfully in fewer numbers, but we still don’t have a significant treatment for these patients,” he said.
“We are also completely terrified of a second peak. I think a lot of the emotional stress that goes into fighting a pandemic is not necessarily the situation on the ground, but quite a lot of it is psychological. That feeling in your gut that this is about to get worse and worse. And that never really goes away, even when the peak passes.
“And I am just noticing a lot of exhaustion from colleagues. Not just because of the intensity of the shifts of the past few months, but the gaps we have had to fill.”
