Covid-19 Survivor Interview Questions
If you want to document your story, or someone elses, and you don’t know where to start, this is for you. In our previous post, we talked about methods of documenting your story so if you’d like some tips on how go check out that blog post. If you’d like help on what, then you’re in the right place.
First, there is no right or wrong way to document your story. You are recording your experience — physically and mentally — and that’s all the matters. Below are some prompts to help you get going, but feel free to go off on tangents as they come up. Don’t worry about making it perfect now. You can always go back and edit it later. The most important thing is to record your story.
That said, here are some questions to help you figure out where to start and what to say:
Start with some Background on You
If you’re going to share this publicly, you may want to start with some basic background information so people have some context on who you are. Share a little about yourself: family, occupation, age, origin, current location.
What’s your name, age, occupation?
Share a little about your family. Are you the oldest child? A mother? Father? Spouse? Widow?
Go Back to the Beginning
When did you first hear about COVID-19 and what did you think about it?
Where do you think you caught COVID-19?
How did you know you were positive for COVID-19?
What was it like to get tested? Was it hard to get tested?
What did you think when you found out you were positive? What was your first thought when you found out you tested positive?
What were you most worried about? Afraid of?
Describe Your Covid Experience
One of my favorite tools for storytelling is analogies. For those you haven’t gone through it, try comparing your experiences to something they may have experiences themselves. What did it feel like? What did it send like? For example, one survivor described her lungs like she was “breathing fire.”
What were your symptoms like? Did you lose your sense of smell and/or taste? What did the symptoms feel like? What would you compare them to?
What did you do after you found out you were positive?
What did you find yourself thinking about the most while you had the virus?
How were you treated or how did you treat yourself?
What was the hardest part?
What was the funniest thing that happened during your experience?
What was the best part?
What was the biggest challenge?
What were you most afraid of?
What or who helped you cope and get through it?
What did you worry about the most?
What did you pray for?
How would you describe the scene at the hospital?
What kept you going while you were sick?
Reflect on Your Experience After It’s Over
Has this experience changed you? If so, how?
How will you live life differently after going through this?
Has this experience changed your outlook on life? If so, how?
If you could go back in time, how would you do things differently?
What do you think you’ll do if it resurges or comes back? How do you think you’ll behave?
Do you have survivor's guilt? Do you feel guilty for surviving?
Do you feel stigmatized?
What did you learn?
Is there anything you would do differently (if this happens again)?
What do you want people to know about Covid?
What advice do you have for others?
What do you want people to know about your story?
Why do you want people to hear your story?
Have you had any residual symptoms?
What was it like going back to work?
What are you most looking forward to after recovering?
How has this affected your family?
How has this affected your relationships?
How has this affected your job / ability to work?
How has this affected your mental health? What are you doing to help that?
What gives you hope (for the future)?
If you’re interested in sharing your story through our platform, head over here and tell us a little bit about yourself. If you are in an area where we will be filming soon, we may reach out to see if you want to do an on camera interview. If not, you can put together a 2,000 character version of your story and share a portait and/or video with us that we can post on our social channels and our website. Feel free to email us directly at survivors@namuhmedia.com.