COVID-19: We are the ‘underlying conditions’

LUCY NEILAND

Repost from Ipsos MORI

Ipsos MORI’s award-winning Ethnography Centre of Excellence has been engaging with people who have underlying conditions, exploring how they are adapting to life in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our ethnographers have pulled together an unfiltered view of their stories to develop an empathetic understanding of in-situ behaviours and beliefs. During this pandemic, unprecedented in living memory, our research will help us stay close to patients, understanding their lived experience in troubled times.

While the news that it is the elderly and those with underlying conditions are most at risk has reassured most of the population outside of these demographics, those who fall within it are feeling left behind. This collection of interviews should act as a clarion call to both government and public service responses, and emphasise the importance of individual distancing and hygiene actions. Above all, we hope it encourages an empathetic understanding of those people most at risk but may not be recognised, who say:  “We are the ‘underlying conditions’, and we count!”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lucy Neiland is a business anthropologist at Ipsos MORI specialising in health and finances.

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