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TYPE Original Research
PUBLISHED 23 February 2023
DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1092322
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EDITED BY
José Granero Molina,
University of Almeria, Spain
REVIEWED BY
Cayetano Fernández-Sola,
University of Almeria, Spain
Olivia Ibáñez-Masero,
Universidad de Huelva, Spain
*CORRESPONDENCE
Deborah Lupton
d.lupton@unsw.edu.au
SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Life-Course Epidemiology and Social
Inequalities in Health,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Public Health
RECEIVED 07 November 2022
ACCEPTED 06 February 2023
PUBLISHED 23 February 2023
CITATION
Lupton D and Lewis S (2023) Australians’
experiences of COVID-19 during the early
months of the crisis: A qualitative interview
study. Front. Public Health 11:1092322.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1092322
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©2023 Lupton and Lewis. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms
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does not comply with these terms.
Australians’ experiences of
COVID-19 during the early
months of the crisis: A qualitative
interview study
Deborah Lupton1*and Sophie Lewis2
1Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney,
Kensington, NSW, Australia, 2School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of
Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
Introduction: The COVID-19 crisis has wrought major changes to people’s lives
across the globe since the beginning of the outbreak in early 2020. The "Australians’
Experiences of COVID-19” qualitative descriptive study was established to explore
how Australians from dierent geographical areas and social groups experienced
the COVID-19 crisis.
Methods: Three sets of semi-structured interviews, each with a diverse group
of 40 adults across Australia, were completed between 2020 and 2022. This
article reports findings from the first set of interviews, conducted by telephone
in mid-2020.
Results: The participants discussed their experiences of living through this period,
which was characterized by strong public health measures to contain the spread
of COVID, including a national lockdown and border closures. Interview fieldnotes
and verbatim transcripts were used to conduct an interpretive thematic analysis.
The analysis is structured around the following five themes covering the quotidian
and aective aspects of participants’ lives in the early months of the COVID crisis:
“disruption to routines;” “habituating to preventive measures;” “social isolation and
loneliness;” “changes to work and education;” and “little change to life.” A sixth
theme concerns how participants responded to our question about what they
imagined their lives would be like after the pandemic: “imagining post-COVID life.”
Discussion: The crisis aected participants’ experience of daily life variously
according to such factors as their social circumstances and obligations as well
as their histories of illness, making visible some of the unequal social and
economic eects of the pandemic across dierent genders, ages, localities and
socioeconomic groups. Our participants fell into three roughly equal groups: (i)
those who found the lockdown and associated restrictions very dicult; (ii) those
who reported feeling barely aected by these conditions; and (iii) those who found
benefits to the “slowing down” of life during this period.
KEYWORDS
COVID-19, Australia, qualitative, interviews, socio-spatial analyses, crisis, life experiences,
sociology
1. Introduction
Since erupting in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected all
regions of the world, with new variants and subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 continuing to
evolve and causing new outbreaks. Several million lives have already been lost to COVID
worldwide. In most countries, everyday lives and the economy as well as people’s health have
been severely disrupted (1,2). Throughout the pandemic, many healthcare systems have
been strained by caring for unprecedented numbers of seriously ill patients with COVID (3).
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Social research is urgently needed to document people’s everyday
experiences of living in this time, how different countries and
governments are addressing the pandemic, what measures and
policies have been most effective and the consequent social changes.
A multitude of studies have now been conducted globally on
people’s experiences of COVID, pointing to the often very different
conditions and outcomes for people of the crisis depending
on aspects such as their nation’s COVID prevention policies,
its provision of healthcare and welfare support, treatment of
socioeconomically disadvantaged people and other vulnerable
groups such as older people and people living with pre-
existing medical conditions. Socio-spatial dimensions are crucial
to these experiences. As Sparke and Anguelov (4) note, there
are geographies of infection, vulnerability, blame, immunization,
interdependency, care and resilience to identify. These socio-
spatialities can be widely varied even within regions (5). Research
in countries around the world has drawn attention to the
emotions felt during the initial months of the pandemic, as people
faced loneliness and feelings of isolation during lockdowns and
quarantine periods, as well as fear and anxiety about becoming ill or
dying from a previously unknown and still mysterious virus (6–8).
The exacerbation of pre-existing socioeconomic disadvantage due
to COVID lockdowns and other restrictions as well as inadequate
healthcare has been identified across the globe (2,5,9,10). In many
countries, young people in particular have been badly affected by
lockdowns (11), as have women faced with financial insecurity or
attempting to work from home at the same time as juggling caring
or educating children unable to attend school or childcare (12).
People living in conditions of socioeconomic disadvantage have
borne the brunt of the health and economic impacts of the COVID
crisis (13).
In the first year of the pandemic, experiences varied quite
widely across nations, depending on the types of public health
measures that were introduced and the resultant case numbers
and death rates. For example, people in nations where strong
restrictions were implemented early found life to be very different
from those where COVID management was poor or significantly
delayed (2). Australia is one of the few nations in which
governments and health agencies implemented effective public
health measures such as border closures and lockdowns early
on, pursuing an elimination strategy that was largely successful
during the first year of the pandemic (14–16). The “Australians’
Experiences of COVID-19” study was designed to investigate the
socio-spatial aspects of everyday life in this wealthy nation. This
study is a continuing investigation across several years of the
COVID crisis, with three stages completed to date. Stage 1 was
conducted when the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 was first spreading
around the world, Stage 2 in late 2021, when the second COVID
wave led by Delta variant had achieved dominance in infections,
both in Australia and worldwide, and Stage 3 in late 2022, following
the outbreak of the Omicron variant and the “living with COVID”
phase of Australia’s approach to management of the pandemic
(15,17).
This article reports findings from the first set of interviews,
conducted by telephone in mid-2020 with a diverse group of 40
adults across Australia. Following overviews of the COVID crisis
in Australia and the findings of previous research on Australians’
attitudes and behaviors in response to the pandemic, we provide
further details of our methods and participants. Our analysis
focuses on the participants’ responses to questions about how their
everyday lives had changed during this period, what were the
most challenging aspects they faced and what they imagined their
lives would be like once the crisis has passed. The presentation
of findings is structured around these questions and the topical
themes we identified in participants’ responses.
2. Background: The COVID-19 crisis in
Australia
Like most countries, Australia has faced rapid changes in
COVID risk and management of that risk since early 2020 (15,16).
The disease that became known as COVID-19 was reported on the
last day of 2019 and was declared as a pandemic by the World
Health Organization on 11 March 2020 (18). During the first 6
months of the COVID crisis, Australians, together with the rest
of the world, were learning about this new coronavirus SARS-
CoV-2 and the disease it caused. Australian governments were
confronting the problem of how best to manage the pandemic
and limit the force of both health and socioeconomic impacts.
In January and February 2020, COVID was viewed as a “distant
threat” to Australians (17), with the first case (a traveler from
Wuhan. China) identified on 25 January (14). The situation rapidly
changed in mid-March, however, following the first cases identified
of spread of the virus within Australia and the declaration by
the World Health Organization that COVID was characterized as
a pandemic. Australian governments began to act decisively to
implement strong controls to limit the spread of the virus within
the nation’s borders (15).
Australia is governed by both federal and state government
systems. There is a Commonwealth Department of Health and
Aged Care, a Chief Medical Officer and a Minister for Health
and Aged Care. Additionally, each state or territory has its
own government, leader of the government (Premier), health
department, health minister and Chief Health Officer. From
23 March 2020, the Australian federal government imposed an
unprecedented severe lockdown on the whole nation in the attempt
to “flatten the curve” of COVID infections. Schools and workplaces
were closed, and many businesses were forced to shut down
resulting in high numbers of people losing their jobs. Most people
were expected to stay confined to their homes, with the exception of
workers such as those in healthcare, supermarkets, delivery services
and other essential services. International borders were closed, so
that travel to and outside Australia was essentially banned, with
exemptions provided only in exceptional circumstances (14,19).
Despite a conservative federal government being in power at
the time, strong social welfare measures (such as the JobSeeker
and JobKeeper programs) were implemented to provide financial
support to people who were unemployed or had lost income due to
mandated business closures (17). State/territory-based leaders also
played major roles in COVID management and control, informing
publics about restrictions, announcing state-based case and death
numbers and imposing local restrictions such as internal border
closures and lockdowns (20). By early April 2020, these strong
measures had begun to take effect and COVID case numbers were
falling. From late April, governments began to loosen restrictions
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and the lockdown was gradually lifted. Australia moved into
the “COVID Zero” phase (17), in which governments sought to
eliminate cases of the disease (15,16).
Most assessments of global responses to COVID agree that
Australia’s management of COVID in 2020 and 2021 was among
the most effective (10,19). Excess mortality in Australia during this
period fell while similar nations endured massive death rates and
hospitalizations per capita due to severe COVID (16). However, by
the end of 2021, and with the introduction of COVID vaccines,
federal and state governments were highly wary of imposing
further restrictions. They decided on a “living with COVID”
strategy, in which government and public health measures were
scaled down significantly and instead there was an emphasis on
personal responsibility for managing exposure to COVID (17).
Unfortunately, the Omicron variant then reached Australia, and
into 2022 COVID cases and deaths rose exponentially (16).
3. Previous research on Australians’
early experiences of COVID
Several quantitative surveys were conducted in Australia during
the early phase of the pandemic, identifying the effects of lockdown
on Australians’ mental health and feelings of wellbeing. An online
survey studying self-reported acute mental health responses during
the first COVID wave found that most respondents reported
that their mental health had worsened since the outbreak. One
quarter of the respondents were very or extremely worried about
contracting COVID and half were worried about family members
or friends becoming infected (21). Researchers focusing on the state
of Western Australia identified that respondents’ experiences of
the national lockdown compared with the post-lockdown period
were characterized by significantly lower levels of physical activity,
poorer mental wellbeing and sense of control over one’s life, greater
feelings of loneliness and higher consumption of unhealthy food,
sugary and alcoholic drinks (22). Surveys have also demonstrated
similar gendered effects to those found in other countries, with
Australian women shouldering most of the burden of caring
responsibilities and loss of income during the national lockdown,
with little recognition from their employers of this additional
unpaid labor (23).
Qualitative studies investigating Australians’ experiences of
the first COVID wave in greater depth have also identified the
stresses on their mental health and quality of life. Research
with marginalized or vulnerable groups that were already dealing
with significant challenges identified decreased wellbeing. Studies
involving gay and bisexual men reported loss of ties during the
national lockdown to the communities and leisure, sexual activity
and social spaces in which these men found a sense of belonging,
accompanied by feelings of loneliness and loss (24). People living
with cancer also struggled with new challenges, including loss of
access to healthcare and greater feelings of vulnerability, dread and
fear (25). Interviews with middle-aged women found that some
were turning to alcohol to alleviate the stress of the lockdown and
worries about the risks they faced from the pandemic (26).
However, other studies have highlighted the “silver linings”
that Australians described during this time, including support for
the public health measures due to feelings of safety and security,
gratitude that the government was taking strong action to protect
its citizens, and the opportunity to make stronger connections in
the community, reset life priorities and to build resilience (27).
While some people’s mental health was negatively affected by
lockdowns, others developed effective coping strategies and ways of
offering social support and connecting to their communities (28).
Further qualitative studies have also shown that many Australians
adapted relatively well to staying at home during this phase of
the pandemic, embracing video messaging and texting as a way
of maintaining intimate connections with friends and family (29)
and adapting home spaces for remote working arrangements (30)
and exercise (31). Analysis of free-text responses to a questionnaire
completed by women with young children living in a rural area
of Australia found that they reported facing challenges such as
worrying about their family members’ wellbeing, their children’s
health and development, and financial and employment issues.
However, these women also discussed ways that the lockdown had
made their lives more enjoyable or easier, including more relaxed
family routines, greater opportunity to spend quality time with
their family members and a positive impact on their children’s
development (32).
The findings from Phase 1 of the “Australians Experiences
of COVID-19” project build on and flesh out some of these
quantitative and qualitative findings by providing further in-depth
insights into what life was like for people during this period.
The research questions of this project were broad, seeking to
identify how adults living in Australia from a wide range of
geographical locations across the nation and across different life
stages and occupations dealt with COVID risks and responded to
prevention strategies.
4. Materials and methods
4.1. Study design
The “Australians’ Experiences of COVID-19” project was
designed as a qualitative descriptive study, with separate sets of
interviews conducted in each of 2020, 2021, and 2022. In Phase 1
a total of 40 indepth semi-structured interviews were conducted
by the second author with adults living in Australia between late
May and late July 2020. We chose to use telephone calls to conduct
the interviews because face-to-face interviews could not take place
during this period of physical distancing restrictions. Adopting this
method also meant that we could easily involve people living across
the vast continent of Australia, including those residing in rural
and remote locations who are often excluded from social research,
and therefore achieve diversity in our participant group. While
telephone interviews do not allow for observations of interviewees’
bodily demeanours and other visual cues, they can still generate rich
and detailed accounts. Indeed, sometimes the more anonymous
nature of the interview encounter can encourage a more expansive
discussion, particularly of sensitive topics (33).
4.2. Ethical aspects
The study was approved by the UNSW Sydney Human
Research Ethics Committee (approval ID HC200292). All
participants provided informed consent prior to the interview.
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As part of this process, in the project information provided to
them, participants were told that they could refuse to answer any
questions if they felt uncomfortable or distressed and that they
could withdraw from the interview at any time. Contact details
for counseling services were provided if participants felt that they
needed support following the interview. We offered a gift card to
thank and compensate participants for their time. To maintain
confidentiality when reporting findings from the interviews,
participants were assigned a pseudonym and all contextual
identifiers were removed from the transcripts. The people who
identified as transgender and gender non-conforming are referred
to with the pronoun “they.”
4.3. Participants and setting
We set sub-quotas in our recruitment to ensure a
heterogeneous interviewee group with a spread of participants
across gender, age group, and geolocation. Interested potential
participants responded to an advertisement about the study on
Facebook. At the time this study was carried out, figures on
Australian Facebook use show that 60 percent of all Australians
were regular Facebook users, with 50 percent of the Australian
population logging on at least once a day (34). Using this method
of recruitment proved to be fast and effective, and we easily met
our sub-quotas. Once enough people had responded in each
sub-quota, we stopped recruiting for it and began to fill the
other sub-quotas. Table 1 shows participants’ sociodemographic
characteristics. The age range of participants was from 18 to 76
years. None of the participants had tested positive to COVID at
the time of interview, reflecting the relatively low case numbers in
Australia during this period in the pandemic and the success of the
preventive measures that had been put into place by the federal
and state/territory governments.
4.4. Data collection
We used a semi-structured interview schedule (see
Supplementary material) which allowed participants to elaborate
on their answers. Participants were asked to talk about how they
had first heard about COVID-19, what the most helpful or useful
source of information for them to learn about the coronavirus,
how their everyday lives had changed during lockdown, what have
been the most difficult or challenging aspects, how they have coped
with these difficulties, what services they had used and their view
on how well the Australian federal and state governments have
dealt with the crisis. The final questions invited the participants
to imagine what life would be like once the crisis had passed. All
interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed.
The second author wrote fieldnotes immediately following each
interview, providing initial details of the participants’ responses.
These field notes were supplemented by the addition of further
details and direct quotations by both authors using the interview
transcript files once they had been completed by the professional
transcribing service.
TABLE 1 Participant sociodemographic characteristics (n=40).
Gender identification
Female 19
Male 18
Other 3
Age group
18–29 10
30–49 9
50–69 13
70+8
Location
Metropolitan 17
Regional 13
Rural/Remote 10
Education
University 19
No university 21
Ethnic/racial identification
Anglo-Celtic/European 33
Indigenous Australian 1
Asian 3
Central/South American 2
Middle Eastern 1
4.5. Analysis
Our analysis of the interviews drew on these field notes
together with further reference to the interview transcripts. We
used an interpretive inductive thematic approach, which involves
identifying patterns across the interview responses rather than
seeking to test pre-established hypotheses. This post-positivist
approach to social inquiry is directed at identifying “making
the mundane, taken-for-granted, everyday world visible” through
interpretative and narrative practices (35). As sociologists, we were
interested in identifying the logics that people drew on when
explaining their experiences, the social relationships, connections
and practices in which they took part and how they described their
emotional responses (what it felt like to live during this time).
This is an “analytically open” approach which attempts to explore
the multi-faceted dimensions of everyday life (36). Our approach
therefore did not follow a standard “coding protocol,” as we do
not view the process as a linear “coding” process. Instead, our
analytical process was as follows. Both authors independently began
their analyses, identifying themes and cutting and pasting relevant
excerpts from the interview transcripts under these themes. The
authors then iteratively collaborated in deciding on which themes
to highlight and in writing the analysis presented here, passing
versions of our analyses back and forth and refining and editing
each other’s work as we did so. We acknowledge that any researcher
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comes to analysis with their own perspective and that analytical
collaboration is a process of sharing and mulling over other
collaborators’ interpretations as we reach consensus over how
to present our findings. Adopting this reflexive approach means
eschewing a positivist perspective on qualitative research in which
proof of “rigour,” “objectivity” and “reliability” is sought. Instead,
researcher subjectivity is treated as resource for interpretation
of research materials that can always only ever be partial and
contextually situated (37).
5. Results
The analysis is structured around the following five themes that
we developed together. Five of these themes cover the quotidian
and affective aspects of participants’ lives the early months of the
COVID crisis: “disruption to routines;” “habituating to preventive
measures;” “social isolation and loneliness;” “changes to work and
education;” and “little change to life.” A sixth theme concerns how
participants responded to our question about what they imagined
their lives would be like after the pandemic: “imagining post-
COVID life.”
5.1. Disruption to routines
Following the implementation of the national lockdown,
people were adjusting to the realities of the COVID crisis and
the accompanying restrictions and other changes in their lives
that the government had implemented to contain the spread of
SARS-CoV-2. The participants described many examples of their
everyday routines and practices being thrown into disarray due
to the COVID crisis, from the loss of employment to significant
disruptions to sleep, diet and exercise habits, due to working from
home. As James (aged 26), told us:
I’m usually an early riser, I’ll get up pretty early, get into
work early. Because I’m working from home, I’m not waking
up as early and I’m also going to bed a little bit later throughout
the day. It’s definitely changed my routine.
Several participants reported intense feelings of stress and
anxiety during the national lockdown. For some people, like Riley
(aged 29), this led to difficulties with sleeping. They noted that the
first week of the lockdown “I was a real mess. I was waking up in the
middle of the night in a cold sweat.” Others, who found themselves
spiraling into depression, began to sleep more. Amala (aged 21)
talked about rarely leaving her bedroom and sleeping most of the
day because she no longer had “anywhere to be” after losing her
casual retail job and being unable to attend university. The loss of
the routine and structure of work and university negatively affected
her mental health, self-worth, and sense of belonging. Though she
recognized that the social conditions surrounding COVID-19 had
been imposed on her, she still viewed her struggles as partly a
personal failing:
[My] mental health [has been affected] because if you are
staying at home the whole time and you just don’t feel like get
out from your bed... I just became really lazy... some days I had
really difficulty to get up from my bed and reach out to my
computer and do my stuff.
Others described trying to deal with feelings of uncertainty,
stress and the loss of “normal life.” Peter (aged 39) commented
that for him, the greatest challenge he faced was coping with
these feelings:
It’s such a new disease, and people are trying to understand
it and what it does. Just that sense of the unknown, and also
just the loss of some markers of normal life, weddings, and
gatherings, personal touch, just normal markers of life, that
kind of thing are probably the hardest part. Obviously, there’s
the economic impact and the uncertainty around that.
Some people recounted how their eating and exercising habits
had changed for the worse. They found that they did not feel safe
leaving the home to take their usual outside exercise, such as a walk,
and therefore this habit fell away. As Joe (aged 41) put it:
I’ve put on a lot of weight. Yep. My diet’s been probably
pretty shocking. . . I definitely haven’t been going out and
walking and doing much exercise. I know they said you could,
but it’s still so–I just felt uncomfortable going out there.
Similarly, Michael (aged 56), who became unemployed during
the national lockdown, said that the stress and anxiety of being
stuck at home had led to what he called a “downward spiral” of
using alcohol as a coping mechanism:
after sitting at home for so long trying to not go anywhere,
you just find that, yeah, you just turn to–[it’s] lunchtime, I
might as well have a beer now and off you go.
In contrast, people who had been able to maintain their
employment and were financially secure described working from
home as offering benefits such as affording “more time” for exercise.
For some, new exercise habits were formed. These practices
included taking up at-home exercise using equipment they had
available, swapping from gym visits to walks or runs outside, and
for others, seeking out online classes or instructional videos.
If anything, we are doing a bit more exercise at home.
We’re doing a bit of yoga in the morning and getting out and
about. Doing some runs at lunchtime here and there. That’s
kind of changed for the positive. (James, aged 26)
Using online resources for exercise or fitness training was
not always ideal. Several participants noted that they missed the
company of other people and the motivation or learning that
exercising together could bring. As Natalia (aged 67) observed:
The lack of going to a gym to my class of Zumba three
times a week, that is something that I really miss. There’s Zumba
videos on YouTube [but] well, it’s not the same to do things
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online than interact with people and being in a room, seeing
how others are doing, and to learn or copying, or if you lose
the steps.
5.2. Habituating to preventive measures
When participants were discussing how they had responded to
government warnings about COVID prevention, increased hygiene
measures such as frequent handwashing after public outings were
frequently mentioned. Responding to government warnings about
staying at home as much as possible and maintaining distancing
from others, several people said that they had made fewer trips
to public places (for example, shops) to avoid being around other
people in crowded indoor spaces. As a consequence of these
warnings, for most people, the home or open outdoor spaces were
considered to be place of far greater safety than indoor public
spaces. People reported engaging in fewer trips to shopping centers
and mainly shopping in their local area or ordering goods online.
During the stage when the virus was more prevalent,
I stayed away from shops as much as I could except for
essentials. My daughter offered to do my shopping, but I’m a
bit independent and prefer to duck in and out of shops rather
than spend a lot of time looking around. (Faye, aged 73)
Already in this early phase there were major differences in
how people observed others behaving in public: some maintaining
highly protective practices and others apparently feeling little sense
of fear or risk and therefore readily dropping their “hygienic”
behaviors. These comments suggest that people were closely
observing others’ behaviors and practices and assessing whether
a public space felt “safe” to enter. A common response from
participants when recounting challenges they had faced in relation
to COVID expressed frustration and irritation with other people’s
behaviors when they were assessed as not engaging in appropriately
safe practices. This was particularly the case with social distancing:
participants felt that they were doing their best to stand at a safe
distance (the recommended 1.5 m) away from other people but
that others were not as vigilant and therefore exposing people
to infection.
When I have gone out to the supermarket recently, it’s
like social distancing no longer applies. I’ve found that really
frustrating. . . I guess I’m a kind of a rule follower, but also, I
just know that [the virus] is still there and that you still need
to be doing it. People just seem to be over it, they’ve decided
otherwise for themselves, and I’m concerned about that. (Joe,
aged 41)
Several people also mentioned the hoarding and panic buying
behaviors that received a high level of media coverage during
this period.
People were crazily shopping and buying a heap of stuff.
You tell yourself, yeah, look, I don’t need all that. But then
if you’re seeing other people do it and there’s nothing on the
shelves, you actually start to then say, well, I’m going shopping
once a week every now and then, I should probably stock up.
Because if I go again and there’s nothing there that I need then
that’s going to be an issue. (James, aged 26)
In some cases, participants recounted their worries
about accessing essential goods and services: particularly
if they were forced to stay in their homes due to mobility
difficulties or health conditions. For people with such
disabilities or conditions, a frightening feeling about
dependency on others was sometimes described. For
example, Hannah (aged 47), lives with multiple chronic
illnesses. She described the loss of independence she felt
during lockdown:
I thought, well, I got told I need to self-isolate, so I
couldn’t just go down the street and I couldn’t just go to
the supermarket. Having stuff like click and collect [grocery
ordering] was better than nothing, but I was, yeah, trying to
hunt down people who could, you know, can you pick this up
or could you pick that up?
5.3. Social isolation and loneliness
Participants discussed the effects of social isolation during the
lockdown, the need to cancel their travel plans and the loss of
regular leisure activities such as going to the gym, social clubs or
the pub. They reported seeking greater contact through phone and
video calls, messaging or social media interactions.
Communicating with family because of the virus has been
a positive impact because I’m more likely now to phone them
than I was before. We’re a bit more fluent with Zoom and
WhatsApp–what do you call it, video platforms. That’s been
positive for me. (Greg, aged 69)
However, several people noted that while they appreciated
being able to keep in contact with others using remote methods, this
was not as valuable as being able to share the same physical space
with others. For these participants, the multisensory embodied
engagements and feelings of intimacy they had with other people
were greatly diminished in online encounters. Peter (aged 39) told
us, for example, that:
I don’t like Zoom meetings, they’re very impersonal to me.
I don’t like the screen–it gives me eyestrain. I miss physical
touch, the fact that you shake a hand or pat a back, or give
somebody a hug when you greet, that definitely took a hit.
These feelings were expressed even by young people, who are
popularly assumed to be digitally literate to the point that they
prefer online interactions or messaging. Amala (aged 21), described
the loss of connection she felt she had with her friends:
I try to catch up with my friends through internet and
through video calls but it’s different–I lost some friends I’d say.
Like the connection we had, I kind of lost it.
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For many people, these feelings of isolation and loneliness–the
physical separation from others–were described as badly affecting
their mental wellbeing. Hannah (aged 47) told us that she was
already living with bipolar disorder and struggled with coping
during lockdown. However, she also noticed friends and online
contacts were feeling down as well:
Well it’s isolating–and being in isolation does a pretty good
number on your mental health as it is. Not just me. I have
contact, like, I’ve got Facebook contact with various people
from various groups and everyone’s mental health has declined.
People accustomed to socializing outside the home suddenly
found that their options were limited to home-based activities.
They were forced to rely mostly on other occupants of their
homes or neighbors for in-person contact. Participating in shared
family activities, checking in with others, and strengthening ties
with neighbors and local community was important for some in
ameliorating isolation:
When [my kids] finish schoolwork, we’ve been able to do
more bike riding. And from a physical fitness point of view,
and away from devices, this has been definitely positive. (Kevin,
aged 44)
Several people, like Riley (aged 29), described spending more
in-person time with their immediate neighbors in the attempt to
maintain some kind of social contact, and to seek to regain a sense
of normality in their lives:
We hang out besides the firepit and have a beer or
something. I’ve talked with my neighbors, tried to make food
for my neighbors, they’ve made food for me. It’s been a lot more
focus to my particular neighborhood because that’s people that
you can socialize with without taking a bunch of risks.
5.4. Changes to work and education
Many people had lost their paid work or volunteer work
due to the enforced closing down of businesses and community
organizations. Others had transitioned to working from home and
had learned to communicate with their work colleagues using
video meetings. Some people found that they were experiencing an
increase in their workload, but others had lost some or all of their
paid work.
Those in unpaid work such as volunteering in community
organizations or family caring often felt a great sense of loss of
purpose and identity when they were no longer able to participate
in these activities. Tilda (aged 56), for example, described the loss
of meaningful roles caring for her grandchildren:
[Caring for my grandchildren] was a big part of my life.
[. . . ] So that was a huge, huge–yeah, it was a huge, complete
change to my life. .. I’m a really service-oriented person. I really
enjoy doing things for other people and I find a lot of self-worth
in that, I guess.
Other people expressed worries about finding re-employment
after a job loss or reduction in income, with poverty a real threat.
Amy (aged 27) had just started working casually in hospitality
before lockdown restrictions were established, and she then lost
her job. She was ineligible for any government assistance because
she does not have permanent resident status in Australia. Amy
was struggling with worries about her unemployment status. She
feared that she may not get another job and is not sure how she
might earn money or pay her rent and power and grocery bills in
the future.
Now I’m competing with everybody who lost their job in
hospitality. So, I don’t have any hope–I mean, I’m still applying
for everything I can, but I have absolutely no hope that I’m
going to find anything.
Similarly, Tahlia, aged 22, unemployed and with caring
responsibilities for two younger siblings, told us about
the difficult process she had commenced pre-COVID to
access support for her anxiety and depression and trying
to find secure paid work. She expressed her frustration
that her life (and the hopeful future she envisaged) had
been “put on hold” and the sense of being in limbo
she felt:
So, I finally took that very long step, and then–yeah. . . I just
feel kind of annoyed, I suppose. I don’t know when–things are
still not back to normal. We don’t know when things are going
to go back to normal.
People caring for young children faced the challenges of
supervising school from home. Danielle, aged 41, is one example.
She described the stress of caring for her 4-year old son and
helping her 6-year-old son with his online education when schools
closed down, while trying to maintain her paid work as a mental
health support worker, also from home. Danielle’s relationship with
her partner broke down during this time, and she also talked
about the stress of being forced to cohabitate with him during
the lockdown.
What with working and looking after children–because I
mean, my children are delightful, but usually I don’t have them
around that much, not all the time. Then yeah, there was not
enough breaks. Not enough time to be on my own, which I
seem to need.
Danielle said that she often experienced a strong urge
to leave the house and get outside for a walk or a run,
just to be by herself for a while. Caring obligations and
the intrusion of work and family into all parts of her life
often left very little time and space for self-care. She felt
trapped inside.
I’m sort of rammed up against all these people who
normally, we have a lot more space with. One of whom I’m not
in a relationship with anymore. So, getting out and going for a
run was really about getting a break from all that. So, I would
do it daily, if I could, but I can’t, because at the moment I’ve got
my youngest at home with me.
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5.5. Little change to life
There were a number of participants who did not experience
the pandemic as particularly disruptive, reporting little change
in their everyday lives due to COVID. Their accounts indicated
a continuation of life “as normal” as they described their daily
routines and practices as changing only minimally. For some
people, this was because they were already living in relatively
socially or geographically isolated situations due to inhabiting a
remote location, engaging in the quiet rhythms of retirement.
Christine (aged 68), retired and living on a large rural property, is
one such participant. She told us that her preference for solitude
and a secluded life meant that for her and her partner, daily living
was almost unaffected.
We’ve been practicing for this for years. We used to go out
and shop once a week, we now go once a fortnight. That’s about
the main change. That’s it... We’ve never tended to go anywhere
anyway. . . It really, really hasn’t impacted us much at all.
For participants like Greg (aged 69) and also living in a rural
region, the outbreak seemed remote. Greg recounted that his
everyday life has changed very little since the crisis began, in part
because he was already socially isolated, without local contacts.
He and his partner had only recently moved into a rural area
and had not had an opportunity to meet the local people. He
also noted that he is not someone who goes out to pubs or bars
to socialize.
I’ve moved into a small rural village, and so have no friends
around me. I don’t know anyone. At the start of the virus, I
was still pretty socially isolated because of the move. Yes, I was
living with my partner, but essentially there’s been very little
change to my life.
There was another subsection of participants who expressed
feelings of invulnerability to being affected by the pandemic. They
mentioned factors such as their existing good health that they
thought protected them from contracting the virus or becoming
seriously ill, leading them to see little sense in changing their habits
in response to the threat of COVID infection.
For some of these people, their sense of low risk was
based on their understandings that the virus was only
affecting the health of “other” people: people living in other
countries where there was much greater incidence of COVID
(for example, China, Italy and Spain at that period in the
pandemic) or those who were already vulnerable because
of pre-existing conditions or their age. Some participants
thought back to news reporting of seasonal influenza outbreaks
and drew parallels with these events. They noted that even
though such outbreaks are often serious, they did not feel at
risk from influenza, and therefore discounted COVID as a
personal threat.
I don’t get sick, and this coronavirus. . . it’s just another flu.
So I’m pretty well fit in that regard. So I don’t really worry about
it too much at all. I go about my life as normal. (Dave, aged 54)
5.6. Imagining post-COVID life
The final question in the interview asked: What do you think
your way of life will be like once the coronavirus crisis has passed?
Will it go back to the way it was before–or be different in important
ways? For many participants, the experiences of living through the
first 6 months of the COVID crisis had provoked reflection on
their way of life, their values and those of other Australians and
people worldwide: the personal, the national and the global. The
participants questioned what “normal life” would mean once the
crisis had passed.
For some, especially for younger people and those who had
experienced the most disruption to their lives, returning to pre-
COVID life was something they hoped for and expected, even if
it may take some time. This optimism was expressed by Matthew
(aged 23):
[I’m at] uni and everything is going to start back up very
quickly and I’m going to jump onto it right as everything is
pumping out full pace again. I’m quite excited to see what new
industries are coming out and how we sort of move around the
world and stuff like that.
Many others were less optimistic, raising concerns about the
risks of going “back to normal” too quickly and forgetting to take
necessary precautions:
I would hope to think that there would be some lessons
learned and that things would be done differently, but my
experience walking downtown lately, it’s like everyone’s just
gone b ack to normal. I’m quite surprised. [. . . ] I’m thinking,
wow, people are not taking any of the things seriously. (Sarah,
aged 54)
These participants hoped that changes in ways of being (for
example, social distancing, hygiene practices, and changes in the
built environment) would be enduring. In the future, Kim (aged
70) observed, people may be more likely to stay home more and
socialize less as they have enjoyed a slower pace of life and being
less busy.
I think people have got used to staying home. . . So I
wonder if there’ll be less people going out and doing those
social things. Even going for coffee, going for lunches and that.
I wonder if people have kind of got out of the habit of that and
won’t return to it.
Some participants also talked about their fears of the longer-
term consequences of the crisis for the economy, and the ripple
effects for people’s financial security, mental health and quality
of life.
I think there’s still going to be a lot of people out of work,
and I think the economy is going to take quite a few years to
recover. . . I do worry about the number of people that will
commit self-harm to get out of the problem. And that worries
me and so does the mental health issues. (Darren, aged 64)
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Participants also reflected more broadly about whether there
would be any long-term changes to societal values, including
raising more awareness about global issues such as climate change,
inequality and individualism.
I think people are going to be more–they’re going to start
question about the future and hopefully think about more
spiritual values than material values. I think people are going to
value their community more, instead of taking everybody for
granted. (Tom, aged 55)
Some hoped that the camaraderie or solidarity that people had
shown to each other during the crisis might persist. This included
more focus and attention on issues of social justice and social
welfare, including a change in attitudes and treatment toward those
who rely on social welfare support, as well as a stronger sense of
community. As Max (aged 52), put it:
I don’t like the concept of just snapping back to
normal, because whatever the old normal was, it wasn’t
particularly good.
These participants discussed their hopes that valuable lessons
would be learnt that would mean that governments and societies
were better equipped to deal with similar crises in the future.
The other thing that I hope will change, is that people will
be more aware of the fact that this system is not working so
well for the wellbeing of the environment and society. (Natalia,
aged 67)
6. Discussion
The findings from our study build on previously published
research by drawing attention to the complexities of how living
through the initial months of the COVID crisis affected people
living in different locations and socioeconomic circumstances
within the same country. As previous studies conducted in
countries other than Australia have found, there are specific
geographical and other sociodemographic dimensions (2,5,9,
10) that structure people’s experiences, and indepth qualitative
research is able to draw out such complexities. In our research,
such factors as people’s gender and life stage, their social
relationships and obligations as well as their histories of illness
made visible some of the unequal social and economic effects
of the pandemic. Most of our participants described the shock
of having “normality” challenged once COVID restrictions were
implemented and warnings about risk were issued by governments
and health agencies. What is particularly notable however is that
our participants fell into three roughly equal groups: (i) those who
found the lockdown and associated restrictions very difficult; (ii)
those who reported feeling barely affected by these conditions;
and (iii) those who found benefits to the “slowing down” of life
during this period. Socio-spatial dimensions such as in which state
or territory people resided, whether they lived in metropolitan
or rural communities, their age and life stage, whether they
were employed and in what occupation, and whether they were
living with pre-existing health conditions were associated with
how vulnerable people felt to the risk of COVID and how badly
affected they were by the national lockdown and its associated
socioeconomic impacts.
In the early period of the COVID crisis, people across the world
found themselves confronting a multitude of emotional challenges
posed by confronting the risks of a novel deadly infectious disease
and the restrictions imposed by authorities to limit its spread (6–8).
Previous research conducted in Australia during the first COVID
wave also showed a disruption of routines and worsening of mental
health across the general population (21,22). Our findings support
these international and national studies but further identify that
the crisis affected our Australian participants’ experience of daily
life quite differently depending on their individual circumstances,
extending Australian studies that have pointed to the difficulties
faced by groups who were already vulnerable and marginalized by
virtue of their health status (25) or sexual identity (24). Among
our participants, the disruption to everyday life associated with the
pandemic contributed to a complex mix of feelings and emotions
including worry, fear, anger, frustration, sadness, uncertainty, grief,
boredom and loneliness. These feelings were closely entwined
with participants’ sense of how much at risk they personally felt
from infection and their observations of others’ behaviors. Some
participants’ accounts suggested that they felt invulnerable to the
crisis because they perceived it to be a distant threat. Many
others though, especially those who discussed long-term physical
and mental health conditions, expressed a deeply felt sense of
vulnerability, fear and anxiety about contracting the virus. This
group of participants expressed various worries spanning concerns
about access to essential goods and services like groceries and
medications, finding re-employment after a job loss or feeling safe
in public places.
Similar to previously published international (12) and
national (23,32) research, our findings also identified such
sociodemographic factors as gender and responsibility for care
affecting people’s quality of life during lockdown. The participants
who were living in crowded circumstances or precarious housing,
where it was difficult to leave their homes to find time alone,
or who those were reliant on others for basic needs, reported
feeling most affected by the lockdown conditions. Participants who
had lost their jobs or income, people living with chronic health
conditions and parents dealing with children learning from home
reported greater hardships and stresses as they struggled with the
ramifications of COVID restrictions and closures. The absence of
opportunities for socializing, engaging in meaningful work (paid
or unpaid) and caring resulted in some participants losing their
sense of meaning or purpose in life. As international studies have
identified (11), on the whole, young people in our research were
more adversely affected by lockdowns and other disruptions to
their lives than were people at the opposite end of the life course.
Our findings further identified changes in people’s social
connectedness, both in how they interacted (across online/offline
spaces) but also in the value that they placed in their relationships.
Participants talked about the increasing importance of authentic
and meaningful relationships with their friends and family and the
emergence of new spaces and forms of belonging (for example, new
connections with neighbors). Some people said that the crisis made
them feel a sense of comfort and solidarity with others through a
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shared experience. For others, however, especially those who lost
relationships and lost the routines and structures that provided
the framework for social life, the COVID crisis and ensuing
restrictions on mobilities and the national lockdown together
contributed to the most difficult and isolating experience of their
lives. Physical distancing measures transformed how participants
interacted and felt with one another. The absence of being with
others evoked profound feelings of loneliness and isolation for
many participants and hopelessness about how long the crisis
and lockdown restrictions would continue. Being seen, recognized
and acknowledged by others, and valued by them, was of critical
importance in affirming a sense of belonging and connectedness.
Similar to previous Australian research, we found that people used
digital technologies to help with feelings of loneliness (29) or to
continue exercise regimens (31), but also identified the limitations
of these solutions. Like the middle-aged women in the study by
Lunnay et al. (26), several participants reported engaging in greater
alcohol consumption to counter the stresses of the pandemic.
Complementing other Australian studies’ findings (27,28,
30,32) on the “silver linings” of the pandemic experience for
Australians, some of our participants also described adapting their
routines in ways that helped them deal with the stresses of the first
wave and reported benefits of a slower lifestyle during lockdown.
Those participants who reported few changes to their lives were
older retired people in good health already living a quiet life in
a rural area. They said that they had coped well with lockdown
conditions and had even found some degree of benefit from the
changed circumstances, appreciating nature and a less hectic pace
of life. Such individuals did not need to worry about financial
pressures, lack of space, or caring for children at home while
juggling other demands.
What is particularly novel in our research is the question we
asked at the end of the interview about how our participants
imagined the future once COVID had passed. Their responses
offered further insights into their experiences and feelings about the
pandemic in the early stages. People who had experienced COVID-
related risks and restrictions as seriously disrupting their daily lives,
(those with constrained resources, precarious work, confined living
conditions, increased caring responsibilities, the socially isolated)
described being stuck in the precarious and uncertain present as
distressing and expressed a longing for a return to normal (their
pre-COVID lives/past-realities). For them, the crisis disturbed (and
for many dismantled) their vision of a hopeful future and set
them back in their imagined trajectory toward secure incomes,
work and relationships. The future, like the present, now felt
much more uncertain or unknowable for many. The future had
transformed from a space of anticipated stability to an unknowable
and uncertain temporal space (38). Others, in contrast, experienced
pandemic life in more neutral or positive ways: in some cases,
simply as a continuation of their quiet but contented pre-COVID
lives. There was yet another group of participants who saw the
crisis as an opportunity for renewal, enrichment, and growth. They
desired a “new normal,” articulating their hopes for an optimistic
post-pandemic future for themselves and for society more broadly.
These participants were more likely to reflect on the positive lessons
that the pandemic had given them or society, including the valuing
of the social over the material in living well. Notably, however, this
viewpoint was expressed from a position of privilege, as it tended to
be articulated by those who experienced least social disruption or
socioeconomic disadvantage during the crisis.
7. Conclusion
Our study’s findings draw attention to the importance for
public health policy makers and practitioners of recognizing
that experiences of COVID restrictions and lockdowns may vary
significantly, even within nations. The temporality of the crisis is
also important to acknowledge. As the COVID crisis continues,
people have had to confront and manage a constantly changing risk
and public health policy environment. Public health practices and
communication need to acknowledge the dynamic and complex
nature of publics’ understandings and responses to COVID. This
rapid change in Australian society in COVID spread and the
subsequent illness, death and disruptions to essential services such
as food supplies, travel systems and education provision provides a
stark example of the importance of social and public health policies
in preventing not only disease and excess deaths but also social and
economic disruptions. There is a need for continuing insight into
the ways in which the pandemic has been experienced by people
across the globe and within individual countries and regions in
different ways.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be
made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Ethics statement
The studies involving human participants were reviewed
and approved by UNSW Sydney Human Ethics Research
Committee. The patients/participants provided their written
informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed
consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication
of any potentially identifiable images or data included in
this article.
Author contributions
DL conceptualized, designed and led the study,
analyzed the data, and led the writing of the manuscript.
SL conducted the interviews, analyzed the data, and
contributed to the writing of the manuscript. All
authors contributed to the article and approved the
submitted version.
Funding
This study was funded by UNSW Sydney.
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Lupton and Lewis 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1092322
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the
absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or
endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found
online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.
1092322/full#supplementary-material
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Interview Schedule.
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