Question Set

Background Questions

What is the date and time?
What is your name, and what are the primary things you do on a day-to-day basis (for example, your job, your extracurricular activities, etc.)?
Where do you live, and what is it like to live there?
When you first learned about COVID-19, what were your thoughts about it? How have your thoughts changed since then?
What issues have most concerned you about the COVID-19 pandemic?

Employment

Has COVID-19 affected your job? In what ways?
Has COVID-19 changed your employment status? In what ways?
What concerns do you have about the effects of COVID-19 on your employment and the economy more broadly?
Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the employment of people you know? In what ways?

Family and Household

How has COVID-19 affected you and/or your family’s day-to-day activities?
How are you managing day-to-day activities in your household?
Has the COVID-19 outbreak affected how you associate and communicate with friends and family? In what ways?
What have been the biggest challenges that you have faced during the COVID-19 outbreak?
What have you, your family, and friends done for recreation during COVID-19 (feel free to include details about shows, games, books, etc.)?

Community

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected your community (Remember, you may be part of many communities including school, club, church, job, etc. You are welcome to speak about all of these communities)?
How are people around you responding to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Have you seen the people around you change their opinions, day-to-day activities, or relationships in response to the pandemic?
“Self isolation” and “flattening the curve” have been two key ideas that have emerged during the pandemic. How have you, your family, friends, and community responded to requests to “self isolate” and “flatten the curve”?
Has COVID-19 changed your relationships with family, friends, and community? In what ways?

Health

Do you know anybody who has gotten sick during the COVID-19 outbreak? What was your understanding/experience of their sickness?
***Please be sure to remind individuals that they do not need to answer this question and that they should not share any personal health information that they want to remain private. Furthermore, remind them that if they know somebody who became sick that they should not share identifiable information with us. Rather, they need to focus on their personal experience—the history part of oral history.
In what ways do you think that COVID-19 is affecting people’s mental and/or physical health?

Information

What have been your primary sources of news during the pandemic?
Have your news sources changed during the course of the pandemic?
What do you think are important issues that the media may is or is not covering?

Government

How have municipal leaders and government officials in your community responded to the outbreak?
Do you have any thoughts on how local, state, or federal leaders are responding to the crisis differently?

The Future

Has your experience transformed how you think about your family, friends, and community? In what ways?
How does this pandemic compare to other big events that have happened in your lifetime?
What can you imagine your life being like in a year?
What do you hope your life is like in a year?
Knowing what you know now, what do you think that individuals, communities, or governments need to keep in mind for the future?

Other Narrators

Do you know somebody from whom you think we should request an interview? If so, would you be willing to make an introduction?