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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

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creative essay about covid 19

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Persuasive Essay Guide

Persuasive Essay About Covid19

Caleb S.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid19 | Examples & Tips

11 min read

Persuasive Essay About Covid19

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Are you looking to write a persuasive essay about the Covid-19 pandemic?

Writing a compelling and informative essay about this global crisis can be challenging. It requires researching the latest information, understanding the facts, and presenting your argument persuasively.

But don’t worry! with some guidance from experts, you’ll be able to write an effective and persuasive essay about Covid-19.

In this blog post, we’ll outline the basics of writing a persuasive essay . We’ll provide clear examples, helpful tips, and essential information for crafting your own persuasive piece on Covid-19.

Read on to get started on your essay.

Arrow Down

  • 1. Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19
  • 2. Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid19
  • 3. Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Vaccine
  • 4. Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration
  • 5. Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19
  • 6. Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19
  • 7. Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19
  • 8. Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19 

Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Here are the steps to help you write a persuasive essay on this topic, along with an example essay:

Step 1: Choose a Specific Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement should clearly state your position on a specific aspect of COVID-19. It should be debatable and clear. For example:

Step 2: Research and Gather Information

Collect reliable and up-to-date information from reputable sources to support your thesis statement. This may include statistics, expert opinions, and scientific studies. For instance:

  • COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness data
  • Information on vaccine mandates in different countries
  • Expert statements from health organizations like the WHO or CDC

Step 3: Outline Your Essay

Create a clear and organized outline to structure your essay. A persuasive essay typically follows this structure:

  • Introduction
  • Background Information
  • Body Paragraphs (with supporting evidence)
  • Counterarguments (addressing opposing views)

Step 4: Write the Introduction

In the introduction, grab your reader's attention and present your thesis statement. For example:

Step 5: Provide Background Information

Offer context and background information to help your readers understand the issue better. For instance:

Step 6: Develop Body Paragraphs

Each body paragraph should present a single point or piece of evidence that supports your thesis statement. Use clear topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. Here's an example:

Step 7: Address Counterarguments

Acknowledge opposing viewpoints and refute them with strong counterarguments. This demonstrates that you've considered different perspectives. For example:

Step 8: Write the Conclusion

Summarize your main points and restate your thesis statement in the conclusion. End with a strong call to action or thought-provoking statement. For instance:

Step 9: Revise and Proofread

Edit your essay for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. Ensure that your argument flows logically.

Step 10: Cite Your Sources

Include proper citations and a bibliography page to give credit to your sources.

Remember to adjust your approach and arguments based on your target audience and the specific angle you want to take in your persuasive essay about COVID-19.

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Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid19

When writing a persuasive essay about the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to consider how you want to present your argument. To help you get started, here are some example essays for you to read:

Check out some more PDF examples below:

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Pandemic

Sample Of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 In The Philippines - Example

If you're in search of a compelling persuasive essay on business, don't miss out on our “ persuasive essay about business ” blog!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Vaccine

Covid19 vaccines are one of the ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but they have been a source of controversy. Different sides argue about the benefits or dangers of the new vaccines. Whatever your point of view is, writing a persuasive essay about it is a good way of organizing your thoughts and persuading others.

A persuasive essay about the Covid-19 vaccine could consider the benefits of getting vaccinated as well as the potential side effects.

Below are some examples of persuasive essays on getting vaccinated for Covid-19.

Covid19 Vaccine Persuasive Essay

Persuasive Essay on Covid Vaccines

Interested in thought-provoking discussions on abortion? Read our persuasive essay about abortion blog to eplore arguments!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration

Covid19 has drastically changed the way people interact in schools, markets, and workplaces. In short, it has affected all aspects of life. However, people have started to learn to live with Covid19.

Writing a persuasive essay about it shouldn't be stressful. Read the sample essay below to get idea for your own essay about Covid19 integration.

Persuasive Essay About Working From Home During Covid19

Searching for the topic of Online Education? Our persuasive essay about online education is a must-read.

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19

Covid-19 has been an ever-evolving issue, with new developments and discoveries being made on a daily basis.

Writing an argumentative essay about such an issue is both interesting and challenging. It allows you to evaluate different aspects of the pandemic, as well as consider potential solutions.

Here are some examples of argumentative essays on Covid19.

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 Sample

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 With Introduction Body and Conclusion

Looking for a persuasive take on the topic of smoking? You'll find it all related arguments in out Persuasive Essay About Smoking blog!

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Do you need to prepare a speech about Covid19 and need examples? We have them for you!

Persuasive speeches about Covid-19 can provide the audience with valuable insights on how to best handle the pandemic. They can be used to advocate for specific changes in policies or simply raise awareness about the virus.

Check out some examples of persuasive speeches on Covid-19:

Persuasive Speech About Covid-19 Example

Persuasive Speech About Vaccine For Covid-19

You can also read persuasive essay examples on other topics to master your persuasive techniques!

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19 requires a thoughtful approach to present your arguments effectively. 

Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling persuasive essay on this topic:

Choose a Specific Angle

Start by narrowing down your focus. COVID-19 is a broad topic, so selecting a specific aspect or issue related to it will make your essay more persuasive and manageable. For example, you could focus on vaccination, public health measures, the economic impact, or misinformation.

Provide Credible Sources 

Support your arguments with credible sources such as scientific studies, government reports, and reputable news outlets. Reliable sources enhance the credibility of your essay.

Use Persuasive Language

Employ persuasive techniques, such as ethos (establishing credibility), pathos (appealing to emotions), and logos (using logic and evidence). Use vivid examples and anecdotes to make your points relatable.

Organize Your Essay

Structure your essay involves creating a persuasive essay outline and establishing a logical flow from one point to the next. Each paragraph should focus on a single point, and transitions between paragraphs should be smooth and logical.

Emphasize Benefits

Highlight the benefits of your proposed actions or viewpoints. Explain how your suggestions can improve public health, safety, or well-being. Make it clear why your audience should support your position.

Use Visuals -H3

Incorporate graphs, charts, and statistics when applicable. Visual aids can reinforce your arguments and make complex data more accessible to your readers.

Call to Action

End your essay with a strong call to action. Encourage your readers to take a specific step or consider your viewpoint. Make it clear what you want them to do or think after reading your essay.

Revise and Edit

Proofread your essay for grammar, spelling, and clarity. Make sure your arguments are well-structured and that your writing flows smoothly.

Seek Feedback 

Have someone else read your essay to get feedback. They may offer valuable insights and help you identify areas where your persuasive techniques can be improved.

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Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19 

Here are some persuasive essay topics on COVID-19:

  • The Importance of Vaccination Mandates for COVID-19 Control
  • Balancing Public Health and Personal Freedom During a Pandemic
  • The Economic Impact of Lockdowns vs. Public Health Benefits
  • The Role of Misinformation in Fueling Vaccine Hesitancy
  • Remote Learning vs. In-Person Education: What's Best for Students?
  • The Ethics of Vaccine Distribution: Prioritizing Vulnerable Populations
  • The Mental Health Crisis Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
  • The Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems
  • Global Cooperation vs. Vaccine Nationalism in Fighting the Pandemic
  • The Future of Telemedicine: Expanding Healthcare Access Post-COVID-19

In search of more inspiring topics for your next persuasive essay? Our persuasive essay topics blog has plenty of ideas!

To sum it up,

You have read good sample essays and got some helpful tips. You now have the tools you needed to write a persuasive essay about Covid-19. So don't let the doubts stop you, start writing!

If you need professional writing help, don't worry! We've got that for you as well.

MyPerfectWords.com is a professional essay writing service that can help you craft an excellent persuasive essay on Covid-19. Our experienced essay writer will create a well-structured, insightful paper in no time!

So don't hesitate and get in touch with our persuasive essay writing service today!

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any ethical considerations when writing a persuasive essay about covid-19.

FAQ Icon

Yes, there are ethical considerations when writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19. It's essential to ensure the information is accurate, not contribute to misinformation, and be sensitive to the pandemic's impact on individuals and communities. Additionally, respecting diverse viewpoints and emphasizing public health benefits can promote ethical communication.

What impact does COVID-19 have on society?

The impact of COVID-19 on society is far-reaching. It has led to job and economic losses, an increase in stress and mental health disorders, and changes in education systems. It has also had a negative effect on social interactions, as people have been asked to limit their contact with others.

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Persuasive Essay

How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

Students can share how they navigated life during the coronavirus pandemic in a full-length essay or an optional supplement.

Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays

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Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic.

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many – a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them – and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic – and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

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Essay On Covid-19: 100, 200 and 300 Words

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  • Sep 20, 2023

Essay on Covid-19

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is a global pandemic that has affected people all around the world. It first emerged in a lab in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and quickly spread to countries around the world. This virus was reportedly caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since then, it has spread rapidly to many countries, causing widespread illness and impacting our lives in numerous ways. This blog talks about the details of this virus and also drafts an essay on COVID-19 in 100, 200 and 300 words for students and professionals. 

creative essay about covid 19

Table of Contents

  • 1 Essay On COVID-19 in English 100 Words
  • 2 Essay On COVID-19 in 200 Words
  • 3 Essay On COVID-19 in 300 Words

Also Read – Essay on Music

Essay On COVID-19 in English 100 Words

COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, is a global pandemic. It started in late 2019 and has affected people all around the world. The virus spreads very quickly through someone’s sneeze and respiratory issues.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our lives, with lockdowns, travel restrictions, and changes in daily routines. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we should wear masks, practice social distancing, and wash our hands frequently. 

People should follow social distancing and other safety guidelines and also learn the tricks to be safe stay healthy and work the whole challenging time. 

Essay On COVID-19 in 200 Words

COVID-19 also known as coronavirus, became a global health crisis in early 2020 and impacted mankind around the world. This virus is said to have originated in Wuhan, China in late 2019. It belongs to the coronavirus family and causes flu-like symptoms. It impacted the healthcare systems, economies and the daily lives of people all over the world. 

The most crucial aspect of COVID-19 is its highly spreadable nature. It is a communicable disease that spreads through various means such as coughs from infected persons, sneezes and communication. Due to its easy transmission leading to its outbreaks, there were many measures taken by the government from all over the world such as Lockdowns, Social Distancing, and wearing masks. 

There are many changes throughout the economic systems, and also in daily routines. Other measures such as schools opting for Online schooling, Remote work options available and restrictions on travel throughout the country and internationally. Subsequently, to cure and top its outbreak, the government started its vaccine campaigns, and other preventive measures. 

In conclusion, COVID-19 tested the patience and resilience of the mankind. This pandemic has taught people the importance of patience, effort and humbleness. 

Also Read – Essay on My Best Friend

Essay On COVID-19 in 300 Words

COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, is a serious and contagious disease that has affected people worldwide. It was first discovered in late 2019 in Cina and then got spread in the whole world. It had a major impact on people’s life, their school, work and daily lives. 

COVID-19 is primarily transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets produced and through sneezes, and coughs of an infected person. It can spread to thousands of people because of its highly contagious nature. To cure the widespread of this virus, there are thousands of steps taken by the people and the government. 

Wearing masks is one of the essential precautions to prevent the virus from spreading. Social distancing is another vital practice, which involves maintaining a safe distance from others to minimize close contact.

Very frequent handwashing is also very important to stop the spread of this virus. Proper hand hygiene can help remove any potential virus particles from our hands, reducing the risk of infection. 

In conclusion, the Coronavirus has changed people’s perspective on living. It has also changed people’s way of interacting and how to live. To deal with this virus, it is very important to follow the important guidelines such as masks, social distancing and techniques to wash your hands. Getting vaccinated is also very important to go back to normal life and cure this virus completely. As we continue to battle this pandemic, it is crucial for everyone to do their part to protect themselves and their communities. 

to write an essay on COVID-19, understand your word limit and make sure to cover all the stages and symptoms of this disease. You need to highlight all the challenges and impacts of COVID-19. Do not forget to conclude your essay with positive precautionary measures.

Writing an essay on COVID-19 in 200 words requires you to cover all the challenges, impacts and precautions of this disease. You don’t need to describe all of these factors in brief, but make sure to add as many options as your word limit allows.

The full form for COVID-19 is Corona Virus Disease of 2019.

Hence, we hope that this blog has assisted you in comprehending what an essay on COVID-19 in English 200 words must include. For more such essays, check our category essay writing .

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Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

Writing about COVID-19 in your college admission essay

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

  • The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
  • The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
  • The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
  • Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

  • Are my experiences different from others’?
  • Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
  • Am I aware of my privilege?
  • Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
  • Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

  • Grading scales and policies
  • Graduation requirements
  • Instructional methods
  • Schedules and course offerings
  • Testing requirements
  • Your academic calendar
  • Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

  • One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
  • One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
  • Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

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How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay

U.S. News & World Report

October 21, 2020, 12:00 AM

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The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many — a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

“I can’t help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more,” says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students’ lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

[ Read: How to Write a College Essay. ]

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it’s the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year,” says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. “Maybe that’s a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it’s OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?”

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

“In general, I don’t think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application,” Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

“Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student’s individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19,” Miller says.

[ Read: What Colleges Look for: 6 Ways to Stand Out. ]

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

“If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it,” Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn’t be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it’s common, noting that “topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it.”

Above all, she urges honesty.

“If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself,” Pippen says. “If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have.”

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. “There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic.”

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them — and write about it.

That doesn’t mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

[ Read: The Common App: Everything You Need to Know. ]

“That’s not a trick question, and there’s no right or wrong answer,” Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there’s likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

“This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student’s family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties,” Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, “could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant.”

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it’s the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

“My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic — and that is, don’t write what you think we want to read or hear,” Alexander says. “Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell.”

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, “What’s the sentence that only I can write?” He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that’s the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

“Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability,” Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

“It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all,” Pippen says. “They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle.”

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How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay originally appeared on usnews.com

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creative essay about covid 19

Essay on COVID-19 Pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, daily life has been negatively affected, impacting the worldwide economy. Thousands of individuals have been sickened or died as a result of the outbreak of this disease. When you have the flu or a viral infection, the most common symptoms include fever, cold, coughing up bone fragments, and difficulty breathing, which may progress to pneumonia. It’s important to take major steps like keeping a strict cleaning routine, keeping social distance, and wearing masks, among other things. This virus’s geographic spread is accelerating (Daniel Pg 93). Governments restricted public meetings during the start of the pandemic to prevent the disease from spreading and breaking the exponential distribution curve. In order to avoid the damage caused by this extremely contagious disease, several countries quarantined their citizens. However, this scenario had drastically altered with the discovery of the vaccinations. The research aims to investigate the effect of the Covid-19 epidemic and its impact on the population’s well-being.

There is growing interest in the relationship between social determinants of health and health outcomes. Still, many health care providers and academics have been hesitant to recognize racism as a contributing factor to racial health disparities. Only a few research have examined the health effects of institutional racism, with the majority focusing on interpersonal racial and ethnic prejudice Ciotti et al., Pg 370. The latter comprises historically and culturally connected institutions that are interconnected. Prejudice is being practiced in a variety of contexts as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. In some ways, the outbreak has exposed pre-existing bias and inequity.

Thousands of businesses are in danger of failure. Around 2.3 billion of the world’s 3.3 billion employees are out of work. These workers are especially susceptible since they lack access to social security and adequate health care, and they’ve also given up ownership of productive assets, which makes them highly vulnerable. Many individuals lose their employment as a result of lockdowns, leaving them unable to support their families. People strapped for cash are often forced to reduce their caloric intake while also eating less nutritiously (Fraser et al, Pg 3). The epidemic has had an impact on the whole food chain, revealing vulnerabilities that were previously hidden. Border closures, trade restrictions, and confinement measures have limited farmer access to markets, while agricultural workers have not gathered crops. As a result, the local and global food supply chain has been disrupted, and people now have less access to healthy foods. As a consequence of the epidemic, many individuals have lost their employment, and millions more are now in danger. When breadwinners lose their jobs, become sick, or die, the food and nutrition of millions of people are endangered. Particularly severely hit are the world’s poorest small farmers and indigenous peoples.

Infectious illness outbreaks and epidemics have become worldwide threats due to globalization, urbanization, and environmental change. In developed countries like Europe and North America, surveillance and health systems monitor and manage the spread of infectious illnesses in real-time. Both low- and high-income countries need to improve their public health capacities (Omer et al., Pg 1767). These improvements should be financed using a mix of national and foreign donor money. In order to speed up research and reaction for new illnesses with pandemic potential, a global collaborative effort including governments and commercial companies has been proposed. When working on a vaccine-like COVID-19, cooperation is critical.

The epidemic has had an impact on the whole food chain, revealing vulnerabilities that were previously hidden. Border closures, trade restrictions, and confinement measures have limited farmer access to markets, while agricultural workers have been unable to gather crops. As a result, the local and global food supply chain has been disrupted, and people now have less access to healthy foods (Daniel et al.,Pg 95) . As a consequence of the epidemic, many individuals have lost their employment, and millions more are now in danger. When breadwinners lose their jobs, the food and nutrition of millions of people are endangered. Particularly severely hit are the world’s poorest small farmers and indigenous peoples.

While helping to feed the world’s population, millions of paid and unpaid agricultural laborers suffer from high levels of poverty, hunger, and bad health, as well as a lack of safety and labor safeguards, as well as other kinds of abuse at work. Poor people, who have no recourse to social assistance, must work longer and harder, sometimes in hazardous occupations, endangering their families in the process (Daniel Pg 96). When faced with a lack of income, people may turn to hazardous financial activities, including asset liquidation, predatory lending, or child labor, to make ends meet. Because of the dangers they encounter while traveling, working, and living abroad; migrant agricultural laborers are especially vulnerable. They also have a difficult time taking advantage of government assistance programs.

The pandemic also has a significant impact on education. Although many educational institutions across the globe have already made the switch to online learning, the extent to which technology is utilized to improve the quality of distance or online learning varies. This level is dependent on several variables, including the different parties engaged in the execution of this learning format and the incorporation of technology into educational institutions before the time of school closure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many years, researchers from all around the globe have worked to determine what variables contribute to effective technology integration in the classroom Ciotti et al., Pg 371. The amount of technology usage and the quality of learning when moving from a classroom to a distant or online format are presumed to be influenced by the same set of variables. Findings from previous research, which sought to determine what affects educational systems ability to integrate technology into teaching, suggest understanding how teachers, students, and technology interact positively in order to achieve positive results in the integration of teaching technology (Honey et al., 2000). Teachers’ views on teaching may affect the chances of successfully incorporating technology into the classroom and making it a part of the learning process.

In conclusion, indeed, Covid 19 pandemic have affected the well being of the people in a significant manner. The economy operation across the globe have been destabilized as most of the people have been rendered jobless while the job operation has been stopped. As most of the people have been rendered jobless the living conditions of the people have also been significantly affected. Besides, the education sector has also been affected as most of the learning institutions prefer the use of online learning which is not effective as compared to the traditional method. With the invention of the vaccines, most of the developed countries have been noted to stabilize slowly, while the developing countries have not been able to vaccinate most of its citizens. However, despite the challenge caused by the pandemic, organizations have been able to adapt the new mode of online trading to be promoted.

Ciotti, Marco, et al. “The COVID-19 pandemic.”  Critical reviews in clinical laboratory sciences  57.6 (2020): 365-388.

Daniel, John. “Education and the COVID-19 pandemic.”  Prospects  49.1 (2020): 91-96.

Fraser, Nicholas, et al. “Preprinting the COVID-19 pandemic.”  BioRxiv  (2021): 2020-05.

Omer, Saad B., Preeti Malani, and Carlos Del Rio. “The COVID-19 pandemic in the US: a clinical update.”  Jama  323.18 (2020): 1767-1768.

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The ongoing covid-19 crisis requires strong partnerships across every level of society, write sen. tim kearney, dr. monica taylor, and dr. azmat husain..

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County and state officials brought their expertise and credibility as trusted community leaders, while officials at Personic, who operate the largest testing center in the region and have administered more than 100,000 COVID-19 tests since the beginning of the pandemic, brought the experience in health care and operations needed to reach patients quickly and safely. And because Personic owns its own testing lab, residents are able to have PCR test results back within 24 hours.

This ongoing crisis requires strong partnerships across every level of society. We’re grateful that the Biden administration is making it easier for those with health insurance to access at-home tests, and postal workers in Delaware County are working to provide free testing kits to families under a new federal program.

It’s essential that residents have access to free, easy, and rapid testing in order to slow the spread of omicron.  Our public-private partnership provided an innovative solution to address a critical health care gap in our community and works together to close gaps in our health care system and meet the critical needs of our community.

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My content explains what my life was like during the last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected my life both positively and negatively. It also explains what it was like when I graduated from High School and how I want the future generations to remember the Class of 2020.

Class assignment, Western Civilization (Dr. Marino).

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Blanco, Melissa, "My Life Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic" (2020). Community Reflections . 21. https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/covid19-reflections/21

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Stuck in the middle: an illustrated essay on covid-19 and other past pandemics.

Amanda Pszczolkowski , Grand Valley State University

Covid-19, Coronavirus, Memoir, Illustrated, Creative Nonfiction

Disciplines

Creative Writing | Illustration | Nonfiction

Christopher Toth

The project is a visual essay, in a graphic novel-esque style, exploring how the coronavirus compares to other illness outbreaks of the past century and how the associated restrictions have impacted me at an individual level. The creative nonfiction essay intertwines historical perspectives as a way to inform, contextualize, and reflect my own experience with COVID-19. The project began with extensive research on illness outbreaks of the past century, current developments in the Coronavirus pandemic, and genre conventions of graphic novels and memoirs. The intent was to provide a cohesive whole that illuminates themes in the linguistic essay.

ScholarWorks Citation

Pszczolkowski, Amanda, "Stuck in the Middle: An Illustrated Essay on COVID-19 and Other Past Pandemics" (2020). Honors Projects . 798. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/798

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Sandro Galea M.D.

COVID-19 Was a Turning Point for Health

Our new book focuses on the lessons of the pandemic..

Posted February 15, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

  • To think comprehensively about COVID-19 is to think not just about the past but also about the future.
  • The narratives we accept about the pandemic will do much to shape our ability to create a healthier world.
  • Understanding the pandemic, and learning from it, means coming to terms with the emotions of that time.

In 2021, the United States was at a turning point. We had just lived through the acute phase of a global pandemic. During that time, the country had experienced an economic crisis, civil unrest, a deeply divisive federal election, and a technological revolution in how we live, work, and congregate. The emergence of COVID-19 vaccines allowed us, finally, to look ahead to a post-pandemic world, but what would that world be like? Would it be a return to the pre-COVID-19 status quo, or would it be something radically new?

It was with these questions in mind that, in 2021, I partnered with my colleague Michael Stein to write a series of essays reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim was to engage with the COVID moment through the lens of cutting -edge public health science. By exploring the pandemic’s intersection with topics like digital surveillance, vaccine distribution, big data, and the link between science and political decision-making , we tried to sketch what the moment meant while it unfolded and what its implications might be for the future. If journalism is “the first rough draft of history,” these essays were, in a way, our effort to produce just such a draft, from the perspective of a forward-looking public health. I am delighted to announce that a book based on this series of essays has just been published by Oxford University Press: The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic .

The book includes a series of short chapters, structured in five sections that address the following themes:

This section looks at the COVID-19 moment through the lens of what we might learn from it, toward better addressing future pandemics. It tackles challenges we faced in our approach to testing, our successes and shortcomings in implementing contact tracing, the intersection of the pandemic and mass incarceration, and more. Many of these lessons emerged organically from the day-to-day experience of the pandemic, reflecting “unknown unknowns”—areas where we encountered unexpected deficits in our knowledge, which were revealed by the circumstances of the pandemic. Chapter 8, for example, explores the necessity of public health officials speaking with care, mindful that our words may be used to justify authoritarian approaches in the name of health, a challenge we saw in the actions of the Chinese government during the pandemic.

Our understanding of large-scale health challenges like pandemics depends on more than collections of data and a timeline of events. It depends on our stories. The narratives we accept about the pandemic will do much to shape our ability to create a healthier world before the next contagion strikes. This section explores the stories we told during COVID-19 about what was happening to us and looks ahead to the narratives that will likely define our recollections of the pandemic moment. It addresses narratives around the virtues and limits of expertise, the role of the media as both a shaper of stories and a character in them, the hotly contested narrative around vaccines, and the role scientists, physicians, and epidemiologists played in shaping the story of the pandemic as it unfolded.

This section explores how our values informed what we did during COVID-19 through the ethical considerations that shaped our engagement with the moment. These include the ethical tradeoffs involved in questions of digital surveillance, scientific bias, vaccine mandates, balancing individual autonomy and collective responsibility, and the role of the profit motive in creating critical treatments. At times, these reflections reach back into history, grappling with past moments when we failed in our ethical obligations to support the health of all, as in a chapter discussing how the legacy of medical racism shaped our engagement with communities of color during the pandemic. Such soul-searching is core to our ability to evaluate our performance during COVID-19 and face the future grounded in the values that support effective, ethical public health action.

As human beings, we do not process events through reason alone. We are deeply swayed by emotion . This is particularly true in times of tragedy like COVID-19. Understanding the pandemic, and learning from it, means coming to terms with the emotions of that time, the feelings that attended all we did. Grief and loss, humility and hope, trust and mistrust , compassion and fear —both individual and collective—were all core to the experience of the pandemic. The simple act of recognizing our collective grief, as several chapters in this section try to do, can help us move forward, acknowledging the emotions that attend tragedy as we work toward a better world.

To think comprehensively about COVID-19 is to think not just about the past but about the future. We seek to understand the pandemic to prevent something like it from ever happening again. This means creating a world that is fundamentally healthier than the one that existed in 2019. This final section looks to the future from the perspective of the COVID-19 moment, with an eye toward using the lessons of that time to create a healthier world, as in Chapter 50, which addresses the challenge of rebuilding trust in public health institutions after it was tested during the pandemic. The section also touches on leadership and decision-making, shaping a better health system, shoring up our investment in health, the future of remote work, and next steps in our efforts to support health in the years to come.

I end with a note of gratitude to Michael Stein, who led on the development of this book. It is, as always, a privilege to work with him and learn from him. I look forward to continued collaborations in the months and years to come, and to hearing from readers of The Turning Point as we engage in our collective task of building a healthier world, informed by what we have lived through and looking to the future.

A version of this essay appeared on Substack.

Sandro Galea M.D.

Sandro Galea, M.D., is the Robert A. Knox professor and dean of the Boston University School of Public Health

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Creativity and Innovation in Times of Crisis (COVID-19)

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The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease has posed great challenges to the worldwide economy and people’s daily lives and will have far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease. At the same time, crisis is also a strong driver of creativity and innovation. Indeed, if examined closely, one can ...

Keywords : crisis, creativity, innovation, creative thought, implementation, psychology of creativity, COVID-19

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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries: A literature review and future research agenda

Olena khlystova.

a Henley Business School, Whiteknights, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6UD, United Kingdom

Yelena Kalyuzhnova

c The Centre for Euro-Asian Studies, Henley Business School, University of Reading, RG6 6AA, United Kingdom

Maksim Belitski

b ICD Business School, Groupe-IGS, rue Alexandre Parodi 12, Paris, France

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected countless businesses, leading to serious disruptions for many industries. Drawing on the resilience literature, this study offers an understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries and their response to the challenges they have encountered. This study reviews 59 papers following the systematic literature review approach and reveals several positive implications of the COVID-19 pandemic within the creative industries (e.g., IT and software) as well as the negative (the music industry, festivals, cultural events). Identifying six themes related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries, we develop a response matrix based on the discussion of firms’ digital capabilities and their ability to adapt to the COVID-19 crisis. We outline future research directions using a Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework.

1. Introduction

Since November 2019 the world has been battling the pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’ (COVID-19) ( Barrero, Bloom, & Davis, 2020 ). This ongoing pandemic has brought significant losses for countless businesses, leading to serious disruptions for many industries ( Leite et al., 2020 , Ivanov, 2020 , Prentice et al., 2020 , Mehrolia et al., 2021 ). Along with the travelling, hospitality and retail trade sectors, the creative industries have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Banks and O’Connor, 2020 , Harper, 2020 , Pacella et al., 2020 , Ratten, 2020a , Serafini and Novosel, 2020 ). Gaining a better understanding of the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as formulating potential responses to this crisis, is part of the current research agenda ( Banks and O’Connor, 2020 , Ratten, 2020a , Ratten, 2020b , Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 ).

The business and management literature related to the economic and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is growing rapidly ( Nayal et al., 2021 , Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020 , Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 , George et al., 2020 , Fairlie and Fossen, 2021 ). However, little is known about how the creative industries are handling the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact ( Ratten, 2020a , Banks and O’Connor, 2020 , He and Harris, 2020 , Meyrick and Barnett, 2021 , Joffe, 2020 ). The dynamics of the impact vary significantly across creative subsectors and countries ( OECD, 2020 , Dümcke, 2021 , Florida and Seman, 2020 ), with the Information Technologies sector experiencing positive effects ( Kim, Parboteeah, & Cullen, 2020 ) while libraries, museums, the arts and entertainment industries have experienced negative effects ( Agostino et al., 2020 , Machovec, 2020 ).

The creative industries overall have faced many short and long-term challenges as a result of the pandemic, such as redundancies, bankruptcy, event cancellations, and so on ( OECD 2020 ). Different countries introduced many different governmental and private support measures (e.g., job retention schemes, one-off grants and funding) to leverage the long-term economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Dümcke, 2021 , Joffe, 2020 , Betzler et al., 2020 ). An analysis of the way different countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic could assist in developing further measures to offset the loss of income in the creative industries.

Recent studies have examined the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses and the self-employed ( Fairlie and Fossen, 2021 , Barrero et al., 2020 , Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020 ). These studies have focused on either the transformation of traditional business models or on the mechanisms underlying changes in employment patterns and customer engagement ( Sheth, 2020 , Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020 ). However, despite the socio-economic significance of the creative industries in terms of their economic and social footprints and their employment contribution ( OECD, 2020 ), research into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this sector is rather scarce ( Majdúchová, 2021 ).

Situated within the literature on the creative industries and organisational resilience ( Vogus and Sutcliffe, 2007 , Williams and Vorley, 2017 , Linnenluecke, 2017 , Sawalha, 2020 ) this paper offers an understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries and their response to this crisis ( Eikhof, 2020 ). Our study is guided by the following research question: What is the topical focus and trend direction of publications exploring the socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries?

In order to answer this question, we have undertaken a systematic literature review. We conducted an overview of existing research on COVID-19’s impact on the creative industries, drawing on recent studies discussing the pandemic’s social and economic effects and how it has affected businesses ( Barrero et al., 2020 , Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 ). We chose this approach for the following reasons. Firstly, we aimed to collect, critically analyse, and synthesize the existing and newly-emerged literature on the creative industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, a systemic literature review enables us to investigate research gaps and identify areas which require further research. In doing so, we have applied the Theory Context Characteristics Methodology (TCCM) framework ( Paul and Rosado-Serrano, 2019 , Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018 ). This will help us identify COVID-19’s social and economic effects as well as potential directions for future research into the creative industries – the COVID-19 pandemic research domain. Thirdly, the systematic literature review allows us to identify the state of knowledge regarding the creative industries during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Snyder, 2019 ). Our review focuses on organizations of all sizes (small, medium and large organisations, individual entrepreneurs and freelancers) in the creative industries. Out of the 578,560 papers published between November 2019 and April 2021, we retained 59 peer-reviewed papers pertaining to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries.

This paper contributes to the business research and management literature by providing a systematic review of how the creative industries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by developing a response matrix for firms in creative industries based on six themes that were derived from the review. It also extends the COVID-19 pandemic research to the creative industries ( Ammirato et al., 2020 , Eikhof, 2020 ) by adopting the TCCM framework to suggest future research directions ( Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019 ). Finally, this study provides insights for policymakers working to support the creative industries during the pandemic, as well as for scholars wishing to address the gaps in research ( Mays, Pope, & Popay, 2005 ).

This study is structured as follows. In Section 2 , we briefly introduce the literature on pre-COVID-19 cultural entrepreneurs and creative industries. Section 3 discusses the organisational resilience theory, while Section 4 outlines the methodology of the study. In Section 5 we synthesise the results of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries, then go on to define six key themes related to this research. We discuss our findings and future research directions using the TCCM framework in Section 6 . Section 7 concludes.

2. Cultural entrepreneurs and the creative industries pre-COVID-19

2.1. the role of creative industries in global economy.

The creative industries have been widely acknowledged as an important conduit for economic growth and development ( Henry, 2007 , UNCTAD, 2018 , Landoni et al., 2020 , Cooke and De Propris, 2011 ). The creative industries concept has been developing since the 1990s as governments have introduced policies to systematically develop and promote culture, the technology-intensive sectors, entertainment, and so on ( Caves, 2000 , Lampel and Germain, 2016 ). The creative industries are of particular interest to business and management scholars because of their inclusiveness and post-industrial characteristics, such as their flexible organisation, extensive use of technologies, and the employment of creative and technical talents ( Lampel and Germain, 2016 , Lampel et al., 2000 ). In addition, the creative industries cover a full range of organisational characteristics and activities, from large multinationals to micro-businesses and cultural entrepreneurs ( Li, 2020 ).

Over the past decade, the creative industries have also become an important sector of the global economy ( Li, 2020 , Rodríguez-Gulías et al., 2020 ). This sector has a profound impact on the social and cultural aspects of people's lives ( Santoro et al., 2020 , Pratt and Jeffcutt, 2009 ). The creative industries were estimated to make up over 7% of the world’s GDP ( UNCTAD, 2004 ). According to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2017) the creative industries generated annually an estimated US$2,250 billion of revenues globally and were projected to represent over 10% of global GDP in the years to come. “With export growth rates of over 7% over 13 years, global trade in creative goods was an expanding and resilient sector. During the period 2002–2015, the value of the global market for creative goods doubled from $208 billion in 2002 to $509 billion in 2015” ( UNCTAD, 2018, p.9 ). According to the World Bank (2020) , the UK and US significantly increased the values and shares of exports of goods related to the creative industries, with a year-on-year average growth rate of 1.02% for the US and 29.28% for the UK between 2002 and 2015. While the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2018) highlighted that the global market value of the creative industries was estimated at $1.3 trillion, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) pointed to annual growth rates of between 5 and 20% in OECD countries. In the European Union (EU), the creative industries contributed 3.3% of the EU’s GDP and represented 3% of the EU’s total employment ( European Commission, 2012 ).

2.2. Defining the creative industries and their taxonomy

The literature contains a number of classifications and definitions for the creative industries ( Galloway and Dunlop, 2007 , Cruz and Teixeira, 2015 , UNCTAD, 2018 , Li, 2020 , Council, 2010 , NESTA, 2008 ). This paper adopted the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) definition of the creative industries as “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill, and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property” ( DCMS 2019, p. 7 ).

Taking into account the diverse nature of the creative industries, which cover a wide range of activities such as creativity and intellectual activity ( WIPO, 2017 , Cruz and Teixeira, 2021 ), we apply the industrial perspective of classifying the creative industries based on DCMS (2013, p. 13) . This includes advertising and marketing; architecture; design and designer fashion; film, TV, video, radio and photography; IT, software and computer service; music, performing and visual arts; publishing.

Cultural entrepreneurship is important for the success of the creative industries. It is broadly defined as “the process by which actors draw upon cultural resources (e.g., discourse, language, categories, logics, and other symbolic elements) to advance entrepreneurship or to facilitate organizational or institutional innovation” ( Lounsbury and Glynn, 2019 , Park and Zhang, 2020 ). Cultural entrepreneurship enables the creative industries’ stakeholders to generate revenue from cultural activities ( Konrad, 2013 , Hausmann, 2010 , Enhuber, 2014 ). Cultural entrepreneurs can also be referred to as freelancers, the self-employed, and owner managers ( Ellmeier, 2003 , Konrad, 2013 , Johnson, 2007 , Smit, 2011 , Wilson and Stokes, 2005 ). The role of key stakeholders in the development and evolution of the creative industries cannot be overstated. They form the sector’s strategies and policies, support the community, and control the quality of goods and services ( Quero and Ventura, 2009 , Voss and Voss, 2000 , OECD, 2018 ). Strong stakeholder networks can help the creative industries’ workers to enhance cooperation within the industry’s sub-sectors ( Bazalgette, 2017 ).

3. Developments in the research on resilience theory

Resilience theory provides a framework which allows scholars to examine how individuals, organisations and even countries recover from the impact of unexpected events such as crises, economic shocks and other forms of adversity ( Kitsos & Bishop, 2018 ). Resilience can be considered from different perspectives, such as organisational responses to external threats, organisational reliability, employee strengths, the adaptability of business models, or design principles that reduce supply-chain vulnerabilities and disruptions ( Linnenluecke, 2017 , Vogus and Sutcliffe, 2007 ). From an organisational perspective, ‘resilience’ can be defined as the “inherent characteristics of those organizations that are able to respond quicker, recover faster, or develop more unusual ways of doing business under duress than others” ( Linnenluecke, 2017, p. 4 ).

3.1. The conceptual origins of the resilience theory

The genesis of resilience as a concept can be traced back to Meyer (1982) , who investigated how organisations respond to external shocks. He suggested that organisations can implement new strategies and practices in responding to external threats, namely retention. It is also necessary to learn from the impact of environmental jolts by adopting first-order changes and one-off learning trainings, namely resiliency. Another important work in the development of resilience theory is Staw, Sandelands, and Dutton (1981) , who suggested that resilience is applied to avoid risks and adapt to external threats.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, scholars shifted towards investigating how organizations can prepare for future unknown challenges ( Sitkin, 1992 ) and how organizational systems can learn from crises by introducing and scaling experimentation. Sitkin (1992) suggested that organisations should not be afraid of failure, and should develop “intelligent failure” as a part of their learning process. The further research continued to explore how organizations cope with crises and adversity ( Weick et al., 1999 , Weick and Sutcliffe, 2011 ). Weick et al. (1999) remarked that high-reliability organizations often have a component of inertia in their activities. The authors moved from conceptualizing resilience as an outcome variable to resilience as a measure of reliability.

3.2. The implications of resilience theory post 9/11

Resilience theory was challenged by the events of 9/11 ( Linnenluecke, 2017 ), shifting attention to coping mechanisms and response strategies to external shocks and crises. With growing global climate change, environmental uncertainty has also influenced research on resilience. The concept of resilience was first used as a regulatory framework by the Governors of the Federal Reserve System during this period ( Hiles, 2008 ) as a response to the global financial crisis. In addition, Juettner and Maklan (2011) provided evidence regarding supply chain resilience during the 2007–2009 global financial crisis. They also developed resilience capabilities such as reaction speed, access to information, collaborations and flexibility.

In the 2000s, the research on resilience emphasized the role of individuals with the capability and ability to manage psychological pressures, creating workplace resilience ( Coutu, 2002 , Luthans, 2002 ). The research shifted to the importance of individual resilience, which was defined as ‘the capability of individuals to cope successfully in the face of significant change, adversity, or risk’ ( Luthans, 2002, p. 702 ).

Further developments of resilience literature investigated the role of adaptation and the adjustment and reconfiguration of business models in organizations affected by hostile environments ( Sutcliffe, Vogus, Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003 ). Sutcliffe et al. (2003) demonstrated that organisations are more likely to be resilient if enabling conditions related to information processing, slack availability and capability development are reinforced.

Since the 2000s, research on organisational resilience has clustered on the impact of exogenous shocks on organizations and individuals, such as natural disasters, terrorism, supply chain development and so on. It has focused mainly on the influence of pre-existing conditions and the role of organisational capabilities in responding to such shocks ( Chang and Falit-Baiamonte, 2002 , Powley, 2009 , Burnard and Bhamra, 2011 , Pettit et al., 2010 , Doern et al., 2019 , Williams et al., 2017 , Linnenluecke, 2017 ).

3.3. Recent developments of resilience literature

The recent research on organisational resilience focuses on the response to shocks by industries represented by small organisations (e.g., creative industries, retail trade, agriculture) ( Herbane, 2019 , Barrero et al., 2020 ). Building on work associating organizational resilience with crisis recovery, Herbane (2019) examined how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could grow and pursue their activities to enhance resilience against operational interruptions. Barrero et al. (2020) examined how enterprises within constantly-changing dynamic environments implement strategic choices to respond to such environments and grow. The authors found that in order to grow, enterprises need to develop a robust structure of inter-connection between elements and organisational control systems during major macroeconomic shocks (e.g., global financial crises, the COVID-19 pandemic).

Earlier studies also highlighted the role of adaptation and adjustment as a strategic response to crises ( Barrios, 2016 , Olsson et al., 2015 ). Flexibility and agility are crucial to organisations during crises ( Herbane, 2019 ). Resilience has become an essential part of addressing the crisis caused by COVID-19. Sawalha (2020) conclude that lessons learned from past crises must be reviewed in order to gain an awareness of how to adapt systems to new events and take advantage of them.

The literature that describes customer experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes the change in customer attitudes and preferences triggered by lifestyle change and uncertainty ( Sheth, 2020 , Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020 , Mehrolia et al., 2021

; Prentice et al., 2020 ). One immediate effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been irrational consumer behaviour, where customers simultaneously experienced panic-buying behaviour and a pent-up demand for postponed purchases and services such as art, music and theatrical performances, etc ( Billore & Anisimova, 2021 ).

In addition, customers had to adapt to the “new normal” by modifying their customer behaviour. Such behaviour (e.g., face coverings, social distancing) is likely to be adopted for those attending museums, concerts, theatres and other social events ( Sheth, 2020 , Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020 ). Sheth (2020) demonstrated that changes in customer behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with hoarding (stockpiling products), improvisation due to financial constraints and restrictions, learning digital skills, and other. A new trend for customers has been the delivery of online services (e.g., online concerts, performances, exhibitions) by the creative industries ( Davies, 2020 ).

3.4. The creative industries in the context of resilience theory

Resilience theory was applied more widely during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Hynes, Trump, Love, & Linkov, 2020 ), particularly in the creative industries. As an important component of the knowledge economy, the creative industries can be characterised as entrepreneurial, innovative, sustainable, and flexible. Such industries are particularly resilient to external crises ( OECD, 2014 , Herbane, 2019 ) and their flexibility is a key to this ( Felton, Gibson, Flew, Graham, & Daniel, 2010 ). The creative industries are considered as a sector which contributes considerably to sustainability and inclusive growth because of the diversity of its activities (e.g., IT, painting, crafts) ( UNESCO, 2021 , UNCTAD, 2010 , OECD, 2006 ). Having considered the unique characteristics of this sector, Archer (2009) developed a resilience model for creative workers, which for the first time introduced two main characteristics describing creative workers and the context they work in: a) sustainability and b) challenging the current system in order to satisfy customer demand without major disruption. The resilience model introduced by Archer (2009) was in this respect distinct from frameworks applied to other industries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many businesses, including those within the creative industries, to operate rapidly and develop new, more resilient ways of functioning ( Eggers, 2020 , Ivanov, 2020 ). In order for businesses and organisations to survive in times of crisis, the main component of every system should be resilience ( Hynes et al., 2020 ). The recent events of the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated that the creative industries adopted new business models to operate during this crisis. For example, some museums started to offer online exhibitions, while musicians delivered concerts via online streams or recorded their performances ( Agostino et al., 2020 , Gu et al., 2020 ), changing the customers’ experience, demand and consumption. The literature has also demonstrated that the majority of small businesses, freelancers, and self-employed in the creative industries struggled to adapt to new changes and be resilient ( UNESCO, 2021 , Florida and Seman, 2020 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way social capital is created and maintained, because it significantly restricted the traditional forms of networking between the creative workers and the communities ( Dahles and Susilowati, 2015 , Torres et al., 2019 ) and created the demand for new business models for creative industries. To overcome this issue, additional investments needed to be made in social capital; new forms of engagement with external collaborative partners and community were adopted by creative industries in order to enhance their resilience during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The analysed literature on resilience theory enabled us to identify potential data limitations, as a significant number of cultural entrepreneurs are freelances working as a gig-economy, project by project. These data limitations create a gap between the contribution of creative workers who are formally employed, and the part-time self-employed, freelance and gig-workers in the economy. This data limitation may lead to underestimating the potential threat to national economies and the extent of possible spillover from the creative industries to other industries. Yet little research has been conducted examining the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurs and small businesses ( Belitski, Guenther, Kritikos, & Thurik, 2021 ), particularly on those in creative industries. Ammirato et al. (2020) encourage the exploration of a variety of approaches to organizational resilience in the creative industries. Researchers need to consider the difference between the socioeconomic effects on the creative industries of COVID-19 specifically and of recession generally, and distinguish the differing socioeconomic effects of COVID-19 on creative industries and creative industries, including freelancers and gig-economy ( Burtch, Carnahan, & Greenwood, 2018 ).

4. Methodology

4.1. generic considerations.

Systematic reviews can be approached in many different ways ( Paul & Criado, 2020 ), including theory-based reviews (e.g., Gilal et al., 2019 , Hassan et al., 2016 ), theme-based reviews (e.g., Canabal and White, 2008 , Hao et al., 2019 , Kahiya, 2018 , Mishra, 2020 , Paul et al., 2017 , Rana and Paul, 2017 , Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018 ), framework-based reviews (e.g., Paul and Benito, 2018 , Lim et al., 2021 ), theory-context-characteristics-methodology (TCCM)-based reviews (e.g., Canabal and White, 2008 , Paul and Rosado-Serrano, 2019 , Paul and Singh, 2017 ), theory development reviews (e.g., Paul, 2019 , Paul and Mas, 2020 , Pansari and Kumar, 2017 ), hybrid reviews (e.g., Dabić et al., 2020 ), bibliometric analysis (e.g., Ruggeri, Orsi, & Corsi, 2019 ), and meta -analysis (e.g., Rana and Paul, 2020 , Barari et al., 2021 ). In this study, we were guided by the TCCM-based review protocol ( Paul and Rosado-Serrano, 2019 , Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018 ) in order to develop an agenda for future research, thus narrowing down the literature review approach ( Chen, Mandler, & Meyer-Waarden, 2021 ).

Our objective is to identify the literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries and to suggest directions for future research. We consider a systematic literature review to be an effective tool in achieving this objective ( Tranfield et al., 2003 , Cassell et al., 2006 , Denyer et al., 2008 , Snyder, 2019 ) as it is widely used in business research ( Witell et al., 2016 , Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 ). A systematic review is the most reliable and efficient method of identifying and evaluating a sizeable volume of literature ( Grant and Booth, 2009 , Macpherson and Jones, 2010 ).

4.2. Literature collection, synthesis and analysis

We used the Web of Science database for this study and Scopus as a robustness check ( Verma & Gustafsson, 2020 ). Taking our lead from Rousseau et al., 2008 , Denyer et al., 2008 , we followed a five-stage process to collect, analyse, and synthesise the literature. In the first stage we established the rationale, scope and aim of the review. The search terms were developed in the light of the concepts/theories underpinning resilience literature, which were then used to comprehend the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries. In order to ensure a coherent search ( Snyder, 2019 ), we used all possible synonyms of the keywords used in previous academic studies ( Ammirato et al., 2020 , Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 ). We focused on a combination of the keywords “creative industry”, “COVID-19”, and “impact”. The words “state support” and “government support” were also included in order to capture more papers that could be associated with governmental policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the second stage we developed our search strings and a set of inclusion criteria to ensure the robustness of the literature review sample. We identified core and additional inclusion criteria for our study. In the third stage, we applied the core inclusion criteria, which are: the timeframe of the publications, document type, language, research area, and the methodology used in the publication. The period from November 2019 to April 2021 covered by the review was chosen because it covers the period from the beginning of the pandemic to the time of writing. We included all articles, data sets, early-access publications and data studies in English, yielding 123,825 articles published in the specified period. We then used the second- and third-level inclusion criteria with the aim of retaining publications from relevant fields: business economics, computer science, telecommunications, film, radio, television and others. We searched for studies that used all types of methodologies, namely qualitative, quantitative, and mixed approaches.

We excluded the BIOSIS Citation Index, BIOSIS Previews, Medline, Zoological Record, and FSTA, yielding 2,671 articles. The third-level exclusion criteria were applied to include only papers from the fields of business, economics, other social sciences topics, etc. yielding 1,318 articles ( Fig. 1 ).

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Web of Science Research Design. Source: Authors.

In the fourth stage, we applied additional inclusion criteria, such as the paper’s keywords and the reputation of the journals. With regards to the keywords, we were guided by the keywords used in our search when choosing potential papers for the final sample ( Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019 ). The lead reviewer initially conducted a review of all potentially relevant articles before cutting them down. The other two reviewers examined a small sample of discarded articles to ensure that inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied correctly and consistently. At this stage, no inconsistencies were detected. The final decision on inclusion/exclusion was made by the two reviewers, who each independently applied the criteria to the sample ( Denyer et al., 2008 ).

In order to ensure that the papers in our final sample were of an appropriate quality, we selected articles published in journals featuring on the approved list of the Association of Business Schools (ABS) in the United Kingdom, which is widely considered to be a benchmark database of journals of international standard ( Paul & Benito, 2018 ). However if a journal was not in the ABS list, the impact-factor criteria (at least 1.0 score) was used ( Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019 ).

In addition to the Web of Science search results, we repeated the procedure as a robustness check using the Scopus database. We applied the same criteria to Scopus while using the different options available in the Scopus search engine. At the third stage, we applied inclusion criteria such as computer science, social sciences, arts and humanities, business, management and accounting, economics, econometrics, and finance. Three levels of search were available in Scopus, and we initially identified 578,560 papers. By the end of the search, we retained 82 papers. This search provided us with four fewer papers than the Web of Science search ( Fig. 2 ).

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Scopus Research Design. Source: Authors.

The final stage was concerned with literature extraction. Both Tranfield et al., 2003 , Rousseau et al., 2008 suggest that reliable and valid reviews use standardized pre-determined categories for abstracting data from papers. We analysed the abstracts and excluded papers that did not focus on activity within the creative industries during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the disease. In order to identify existing areas of scholarly interest as well as gaps and potential future research areas, the papers on literature reviews and editorial publications were also included.

The screening process enabled us to select a unique sample of 59 papers published within November 2019 – April 2021 from 28 different journals and 22 different countries. The list of journals is presented in Table A1 in the Appendix. In terms of countries used in the papers included in our literature review, most researchers examined Australia, the UK and China, or conducted multinational studies ( Table 1 ). Many papers were concerned with the general trends or impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative economy or certain creative sub-sectors (e.g., IT and software industry, libraries, museums, social media).

Countries investigated in the literature review.

Source: Authors.

4.3. The limitations identified during the literature review process

Our literature review enabled us to examine the relevant research and identify its limitations. Four specific limitations were in evidence in the recent systematic literature reviews examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first limitation is that research has been conducted broadly and across different research fields (e.g., Ammirato et al., 2020 , Queiroz et al., 2020 , Xiong et al., 2020 ), with little or no evidence of a specific research design for the creative industries.

The second limitation is the presence of selection bias. For instance, Ammirato et al. (2020) examined only studies in recognised international journals or selected conference proceedings, while other authors used selected research from the Scopus database and Google Scholar. This creates a bias towards a specific community of scholars, privileging studies which are made available on these two platforms.

The third limitation is that the new keywords which have appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic may not be fully representative, as more work is needed for a full understanding of the situation. For example, Queiroz et al. (2020) presented a limited research protocol together with the query they used when searching for keywords on the databases, a procedure that significantly limits research scale and scope related directly to COVID-19 and impacts our ability to gauge the effects of the pandemic on the creative industries. Finally, prior systematic literature reviews focus on a restricted geographical area when applying qualitative and narrative reviews in order to understand the impact of COVID-19 ( Xiong et al., 2020 ).

5. The creative industries during the COVID-19 pandemic

A science mapping approach was applied to the systematic literature review ( Singh et al., 2020 , Donthu et al., 2021 ) which combines both the Scopus and Web of Science research designs ( Fig. 3 ). This technique is used for the literature analysis and helps identify the relationship (interactions, connections) between research constituents ( Donthu et al., 2021 , Donthu et al., 2020 , Ramos-Rodríguez and Ruíz-Navarro, 2004 , Baker et al., 2021 ). One of the widely used techniques for science mapping is a co-word analysis, which aims to examine the relationships between different themes by analysing the content of the selected publications in a research field.

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Science map of the systematic literature review. Source: Authors.

The co-word analysis identifies words that most frequently appear together and have a thematic relationship. This technique was used in this study to extend our understanding of the themes (topics or categories) thus derived, elaborate on the content of each theme, and develop future research directions ( Donthu et al., 2021 ). Based on the keywords and abstracts from 59 papers, we used a software tool VOSviewer to create a visualization network to identify the themes related to the impact of COVID-19 on the creative industries. Co-word analysis was used to apply text-mining techniques to the papers’ titles, abstracts, and keywords. Co-word connections allowed us to identify and combine multiple keywords in the same paper, as well as determine the relationship between different keywords ( Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 , Van Eck and Waltman, 2010 , Donthu et al., 2021 ) ( Fig. 4 ).

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The keyword network visualisation of the COVID-19 pandemic – creative industries relations. Source: Authors.

The results of the network were divided into themes based on the classification of the creative industries. This allows us to improve the rationale of the discussion and develop more specific future-research directions for each sector. Six distinctive themes are comparable to the creative sub-sectors, namely cultural entrepreneurs and economy; museums and libraries; IT and software businesses; social media; the music industry and festivals; and publishing and journalism. These themes provide a clear understanding of the boundaries of the creative sub-sectors and their potential response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Table 2 presents a summary of the final sample with the distribution of the papers across the six themes. with country of research and methodology used, key findings and research gaps.

The distribution of reviewed papers among themes with the key findings and research gaps.

5.1. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative economy and cultural entrepreneurs

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a significant challenge for different stakeholders across the creative industries, and especially for cultural entrepreneurs ( Barrero et al., 2020 , Betzler et al., 2020 , Ratten, 2020a , Ratten, 2020b , Ratten, 2020c ). Recent publications on this theme have focused on the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries ( He and Harris, 2020 , Meyrick and Barnett, 2021 , Joffe, 2020 , Banks and O’Connor, 2021 ). The cancellation of cultural events, exhibitions, concerts, performances and festivals, along with the restrictions on social distancing and limited economic activity in many countries, have negatively affected cultural workers, freelancers, the self-employed and other stakeholders in the creative sector ( Joffe, 2020 , Ratten, 2020a , Ratten, 2020b , Ratten, 2020c , Pacella et al., 2020 ).

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt first by creative workers, and especially freelancers ( Dümcke, 2021 ). In addition, Bailey et al. (2020) considered the long-term changes in the creative industries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which could be more visible at the firm and individual levels. The creative industries’ workers could not continue to perform their regular business activities due to social distancing rules and the closure of all creative and cultural venues, and had to switch to virtual live performances instead ( Banks and O’Connor, 2020 , Ratten, 2020a , Ratten, 2020b ).

The existing literature identified a significant number of individual entrepreneurs and firms which had gone bankrupt or just surviving with the governmental support, e.g., introduced in the UK, Germany and Africa ( Comunian and England, 2020 , Dümcke, 2021 , Joffe, 2020 ). A number of studies have been very critical of the public policies (e.g., limited government support, narrow focus of the support packages, one-off support) intended to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries ( Betzler et al., 2020 , Joffe, 2020 ). For example, Comunian and England (2020) stressed the importance of factoring in the geographical dimension of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as this information could assist in the development of specific policies.

In terms of the recovery measures introduced by governments and other organisations, the industry is very fragmented, and includes freelancers along with casual, temporary and part-time workers who are often ineligible for governmental support packages ( Audretsch et al., 2021 , Florida and Seman, 2020 ). For example, a number of European policy-makers in both the public and private sectors have developed measures to manage the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as tax measures, employment-related measures, and stimulus measures ( Betzler et al., 2020 ). Germany and the UK can also be used as examples of an immediate policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the German government announced it would provide financial support of 130 billion euros for cultural organisations, struggling businesses, and others (e.g., NGOs, cultural organisations) ( Desson et al., 2020 , Dümcke, 2021 ). The UK’s approach was offer job retention schemes (80% of salary), self-employment income support schemes for those negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic ( HM Government (2020), 2020 ).

Many authors stated that policymakers should reconsider their approach when designing policies and change their strategies with regard to the creative industries ( Banks and O’Connor, 2020 , Joffe, 2020 , Pacella et al., 2020 , Dümcke, 2021 ). It has also been argued that in order to maintain the productivity of the sector, greater inclusiveness of stakeholders in the creative industries should be promoted ( Eikhof, 2020 ).

5.2. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural organizations – Museums and libraries

The COVID-19 pandemic is very different from other forms of crisis (e.g., financial, political) because it has had a significant overall impact on all business models, organisations, creative workers and amateurs ( OECD, 2020 ). For example, in many countries social distancing requirements and national lockdowns have caused serious difficulties to libraries that provided face-to-face services ( Agostino et al., 2020 ). Museums have also faced significant constraints during lockdown. In other words, cultural organisations have had to reorganise their interactions with their customers in a more dynamic way in order to survive during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

Researchers investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural organisations have considered the resilience strategies used to overcome the crisis ( Agostino et al., 2020 , Koulouris et al., 2020 , Mehta and Wang, 2020 , Samaroudi et al., 2020 ). Some cultural organizations (e.g., museums, galleries) were able to adopt digital technologies and develop their digital infrastructure ( Li, Nucciarelli, Roden, & Graham, 2016 ), which enabled them to survive and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

In terms of the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis, museums and libraries have demonstrated their resilience by developing different approaches and responses to overcome the challenges they have experienced. For instance, Mehta and Wang (2020) considered the digital response by libraries. The most recent examples include the creation of library consortia, which allow all consortia members to access and share digital technologies (e.g., cloud technology, big data, websites, marketing) in order to reduce costs and provide broader access to digital infrastructure. This type of digital library model attempts to replace traditional library services during lockdown ( Machovec, 2020 ). The readiness of libraries for this crisis has also been examined ( Botherway, 2020 , Carbery et al., 2020 , Guo et al., 2021 , Harris, 2021 , Koulouris et al., 2020 , Machovec, 2020 , Ocholla, 2021 , Peruginelli et al., 2021 , Pokorná et al., 2020 ). Libraries have demonstrated strong resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic along with the potential to grow by attracting more readers. In this respect, the development of a digital safety net is crucial for creative and cultural organizations in different world regions ( Pokorná et al., 2020 , Council, 2020 , Council, 2021 , Raimo et al., 2021 ).

In order to attract more visitors, museums have begun to adopt more digital technologies. These enable museums to reduce costs and improve the visitor experience during lockdown. More specifically, the digital transformation has led museums to reconsider their social role with respects to the new positioning on the market and how they can attract a new target audience digitally ( Raimo et al., 2021 ). Museums have revealed the importance of using digital technologies as their survival instrument. For example, during the lockdown Italian state museums facilitated online activities and changed their communication strategies to make better use of social media ( Agostino et al., 2020 ).

These activities considerably improved the relations between museums and customers, and were effective in creating the new concept of the participatory museum and promoting post-visit learning. This means that digital technologies allowed museums to explore new ways of involving visitors by increasing their social media activity and providing online access options to attend the museum, as well as online tours ( Raimo et al., 2021 ). Heritage organisations, memory institutions and museums in the US and UK also considered using similar approaches to digitalisation as a resilient response to the COVID-19 pandemic ( Samaroudi et al., 2020 ).

5.3. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the information technology and software sectors

Despite COVID-19′s negative effects on businesses, industries, and human beings, the pandemic has had a strong positive impact on the products and services provided by the IT industry ( Bartik et al., 2020 , George et al., 2020 , Panigutti et al., 2020 ). Companies selling digital technologies experienced a surge in demand for their products and services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many businesses have introduced digitalisation processes as a mitigation tool to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Fletcher and Griffiths, 2020 , Hantrais et al., 2021 , Kamal, 2020 , Lee and Trimi, 2020 , Klein and Todesco, 2021 ). At the same time, the continuing use of digital tools could negatively affect the public’s mental health, with potential to cause internet addiction, psychological problems, and so on ( Marabelli, Vaast, & Li, 2021 ).

Indeed, work, education, medicine and social lives have moved online, and an increase in digital tools and services is considered the only safe way to keep businesses operating and growing ( Naidoo, 2020 , Yost, 2020 , Saide and Sheng, 2021 ). By implementing and adopting IT in their business models, organisations wanted to demonstrate to employees and customers their capacity to survive, adapt and operate during the crisis ( Carugati, Mola, Plé, Lauwers, & Giangreco, 2020 ).

A resilient response was created by using digital services ( Panigutti et al., 2020 ), termed the digital safety net. This is often low-cost or free to small businesses services, and includes communications, digital marketing and advertising, websites and social media, back-office tools, and e-commerce and online payment tools. The small and large businesses which use more digital tools, technologies, and online marketplaces have operated better during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Connected Commerce Council, 2020 ).

The IT and software industries have expanded significantly due to increased demand for IT and software products, including MS Teams, Zoom, and other online communication digital platforms ( Dwivedi et al., 2020 , Marabelli et al., 2021 ). In addition, the IT industry has facilitated the complementarity effect within other creative industries, and served as a digital spillover for firm resilience and better performance (e.g., online delivery, online teaching and learning, online mentoring sessions and meetings) ( Soni, 2020 ). Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of technology for both work and leisure through digital transformation ( Dey et al., 2020 , Marabelli et al., 2021 ).

5.4. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media

Websites and social media played an important role in the digital safety net while lockdown restrictions were in place and physical contact between people was limited (Connected Commerce Council, 2020 , Landi et al., 2021 , Marabelli et al., 2021 ). Businesses increased their use of remote services via social media tools and platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik-Tok) ( Bae et al., 2021 , Cifuentes-Faura, 2021 , Ferrara et al., 2020 , Marabelli et al., 2021 ).

Recent studies have investigated the “infodemics” which appeared during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Apuke and Omar, 2021 , Bae et al., 2021 , Cifuentes-Faura, 2021 , Ferrara et al., 2020 , Greenspan and Loftus, 2021 , Kumar and Sharma, 2021 , Zeng and Chan, 2021 ). “Infodemics” refers here to the dissemination of fake news, especially via social media. During the COVID-19 pandemic social media has been widely used by many people, and fake information has started to disseminate very rapidly ( Apuke and Omar, 2021 , Hou et al., ).

In some cases, “infodemics” could lead individuals to make decisions based on false assumptions, the consequences of which could become counterproductive for their interests and those of society as a whole ( Kumar & Sharma, 2021 ). Apuke and Omar (2021) stressed that an increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide would facilitate the spread of fake news and stories. It has been argued that individuals search for new information on how to protect themselves from the virus, which will eventually lead them to access fake information. Filtering information and avoiding fraudulent activities thus becomes a priority when forming a resilient response to the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the development of new communication strategies between businesses and customers ( Verma & Gustafsson, 2020 ).

Another new trend which arose during the COVID-19 pandemic was the emergence of a new group of influencers on social media who promoted various brands and trademarks ( Casaló, Flavián, & Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2020 ). These influencers, also known as “digital first personalities”, promote a variety of products to their followers on social media (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) ( Hutchinson, 2020 ). An example of using the social media platforms is introduced by the company Stella, which communicated with their customers through “the adoption of digital tools and operations across the business” (Connected Commerce Council, 2020, p. 88 ).

5.5. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the music industry and festivals

The music industry is of paramount importance for the creative economy ( Anderton, 2011 , Robinson, 2015 ). The cancelation of concerts, festivals, tours, and solo performances due to COVID-19 has had a profound negative effect on the music industry ( Gu et al., 2020 ). In addition, musical events have been at risk of suffering from low attendance because of the increasing costs and restrictions on travelling, accommodation and social distancing.

Like other industries, small businesses in the music and entertainment sectors have been forced to develop creative ways to deliver their services in a socially-distanced world. Challenging their traditional model of in–person delivery of services, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed these firms towards a greater use of digital tools, especially video conferencing ( Connected Commerce Council, 2020, p. 116 ).

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians usually interacted with their audiences face-to-face ( Vandenberg, Berghman, & Schaap, 2020 ). The literature examined the impact of social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram) on the music industry, for example the increase in the number of people attending online music events ( Bartholomew and Mason, 2020 , Burroughs, 2014 , Gibbs et al., 2015 , Gu et al., 2020 ). In terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, one initial response of musicians and bands was to move their performances online, as well as record them in advance and share them as screencasts. This has enabled these musicians to keep in touch with their fans and audience, as well as to evolve their activity beyond the crisis ( Gu et al., 2020 ). Online streaming has been considered as a technologically easy way ( Keane & Chen, 2017 ) to carry on their activity with respects to the national lockdowns and social distancing rules.

There is significant uncertainty about the long-term impact of the pandemic on the music industry, particularly in respect of the format of such events, as further restrictions may be placed on the number of attendees. It is unclear whether music festivals might become more ‘exclusive’ due to space limitations and a corresponding increase in ticket prices ( Davies, 2020 ). This could restrict access to some music events and make face-to-face performances less affordable to the general public. More affordable events using digital tools, such as augmented and virtual realities or immersive technologies, could thus have more potential in the future ( Dashper and Finkel, 2020 , Bossey, 2020 , Davies, 2020 ).

5.6. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on publishing and journalism

Journalism has always been an essential public service. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on journalism has been mixed ( Cifuentes-Faura, 2021 , Davies, 2020 , Hess and Waller, 2021 ). On the one hand, publishing houses have limited access to information at a time when press freedoms are under attack and journalists are working in dangerous conditions that could affect their physical health and well-being ( Bernadas & Ilagan, 2020 ).

On the other hand, there has been an increasing demand for up-to-date information and news related to the COVID-19 pandemic ( Park, Fisher, Lee, Mcguinness, Sang, O'Neil, & Fuller, 2020 ), and for the latest updates on restrictions to business activities, education and so on. While local newspapers have been negatively affected (with many closing down or moving online), larger outlets and news channels have been more resilient with more people visiting their websites on a regular basis. In addition, users have become more digitally active, frequently commenting on and reacting to news stories. In order to reach customers quickly, newspapers and publishers have been promoting information about the COVID-19 pandemic on their websites and on social media and using digital newsletters ( Hess & Waller, 2021 ). Digital technologies were instrumental in allowing journalists to continue working during the lockdowns ( Gu et al., 2020 ).

Certainly, digitalisation is not the only answer to most of the challenges across different sub sectors. Many digital technologies such as Kindle and audio books, Facebook and Whatsapp were the lifeline during the COVID-19, while the COVID-19 pandemic further articulated the importance of using digital tools and embedding them in a business model of organizations, integrating them along to generate synergies.

6. Discussion and avenues for future research

The analysis of the literature discussed in the paper clearly demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the creative industries worldwide ( Dümcke, 2021 , Betzler et al., 2020 , Comunian and England, 2020 ). Two dimensions emerged during our systematic literature review: firstly, the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries, and secondly, their responses to the crisis. With regard to the immediate impact of the COVID-19 we identified a number of challenges, such as cash flow issues, revenue loss, and increase in demand for IT and software services ( Klein and Todesco, 2021 , Ratten, 2020a , Raimo et al., 2021 , Carugati et al., 2020 , Yeganeh, 2021 ). In order to overcome these challenges, it is essential for policy-makers to design long-term employment support schemes for the creative industries ( Williams & Oz-Yalaman, 2021 ) as well as to improve their digital capabilities and resource capacity.

Our systemic literature review demonstrated that the digital capabilities of firms and their ability to adapt were crucial components of resilience strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies have claimed that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has enabled the survival and economic growth of some sub-sectors within the creative industries ( Koulouris et al., 2020 , Samaroudi et al., 2020 ). Several studies evidenced that organisations which enhanced their digital capabilities would create new boundaries and opportunities for growth (Batra, 2020; Gabryelczyk, 2020 ).

Businesses have had to adapt their business models in response to the new challenges posed by the crisis, especially in areas such as real-time decision-making, digital nets, business continuity and testing business resilience ( Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020 ). There are a number of opportunities which might be derived from the resilience strategies of some creative industries, e.g., using digital tools to engage with customers. Museums, musicians, artists and other cultural organisations have adopted digital tools to interact with their customers and audiences, and to deliver their services online (e.g., online exhibitions, recorded tours, concerts, lectures, etc.) ( Agostino et al., 2020 , Mehta and Wang, 2020 , Gu et al., 2020 , Botherway, 2020 , Carbery et al., 2020 , Guo et al., 2021 ).

However, the visual arts, publishing, and social media sectors faced considerable challenges and have demonstrated a lack of ability to cope with the current crisis ( Cifuentes-Faura, 2021 , Davies, 2020 ). By contrast, IT and software companies have benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic and experienced a surge in demand for their products and services ( Kamal, 2020 , Gabryelczyk, 2020 , Sheng et al., 2020 ).

Our systematic literature review has identified a number of research gaps which could be addressed to further understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (see Table A2 in Appendix) on the creative industries. Taking a lead from prior reviews ( Paul and Rosado-Serrano, 2019 , Chen et al., 2021 , Rosado-Serrano et al., 2018 ) we follow the TCCM framework to develop the future research agenda. Accordingly, the following sections investigate future research directions in terms of theory development, context, characteristics, and methodology ( Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019 ).

6.1. Theory development (T)

Since the early 1980s researchers ( Staw et al., 1981 , Meyer, 1982 ) investigated how organisations respond to external shocks using resilience theory. More recent studies on resilience used crisis management ( Ratten, 2020a , Ratten, 2020b , Ratten, 2020c ), disaster management ( Ocholla, 2021 ) and knowledge management ( Saide & Sheng, 2021 ) theories to explain how firms deal with crises and environmental shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this review, we noticed the limited use of organisational resilience theory with regard to the creative industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, small businesses and self-employed individuals in the creative industries have remained under-researched fields in the resilience literature ( Doern et al., 2019 ). While recent literature has focused on organisational resilience ( Williams et al., 2017 , Barrios, 2016 , Herbane, 2019 ), few studies (5% of the reviewed sample) have examined the individual characteristics of cultural entrepreneurs ( Newsinger and Serafini, 2021 , Apuke and Omar, 2021 ; Brunt, 2021) and how they are overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, including their engagement with external stakeholders and how the relationship with stakeholders have changed over time ( Friedman & Miles, 2002 ). In particular, highly conflicting relations between organizations and external stakeholders have been ignored, with few attempts to integrate the separate strands of stakeholder theory to organizational resilience theory. Friedman and Miles (2002) developed a model that combines stakeholder theory with a realist theory of social change and distinguishes between different types of stakeholders. Their model may expand the discussion on what other factors, apart from organisations own and internal attempts, can provide organization resilience.

Altogether, the insights from the organisational resilience theory and stakeholder’s theory could be applied as a basis for future empirical studies to investigate the internal and external factors that drive resilience during of the COVID-19 pandemic across the creative industries. We need new theoretical approaches that can explain the resilience strategies used in the creative industries, such as the mechanisms the self-employed or SMEs in the creative industries used in order to survive the COVID-19 pandemic ( Newsinger & Serafini, 2021 ).

In addition, Cooke and DePropris (2011) mentioned that creative industries located in agglomeration economies have higher demand for their products and services. However, the rapid implementation of digital tools in business models during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Fletcher and Griffiths, 2020 , Hantrais et al., 2021 ) has demonstrated that the location of creative enterprises no longer matters. This has implications for future research in business management, economic geography, and industrial economics, as new business models in the COVID-19 era need to be developed towards digitization ( Yost, 2020 , Saide and Sheng, 2021 ). In addition, future research would benefit from empirically testing and comparing cross-national differences in resilience settings ( Cellini & Cuccia, 2019 ) of the creative industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

6.2. Context (C)

In this review, we identified that a significant portion of research into COVID-19′s impact on the creative industries is related to the creative economy, or to specific industries such as social media, publishing, journalism, IT, software, music, museums and libraries (e.g., Apuke and Omar, 2021 , Betzler et al., 2020 , Desson et al., 2020 , Dümcke, 2021 ). Table A2 in the Appendix introduces the suggestions for future research into the creative subsectors under review and the overall creative economy. However, within the limits of our inclusion criteria, we did not find any studies examining the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on the fashion, architecture, crafts, advertising and marketing, film, TV, radio, video, and photography industries.

In terms of country of research, our literature review revealed that most studies in this field were conducted in the UK, Central Europe, China and Australia (e.g., Chau et al., 2021 , Cowell, 2020 , Botherway, 2020 ). Future research should examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries beyond North America and European countries going to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. For example, the experience of Korea, Singapore and Japan could offer a model providing appropriate settings to test the role of local context (e.g., IT infrastructure in Republic of Korea) in overcoming the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Kim et al., 2020 ). In addition, future research could also focus on emerging and transitional economies to generalize prior results and test the organisational resilience theory. Finally, it would be useful to investigate the role of the local context (economic conditions, cultural differences, IT infrastructure, other settings) as a moderating factor to overcome the crisis ( Chen et al., 2021 ).

We argue that the COVID-19 pandemic created a series of inherent constraints for the creative industries. Many sub-sectors in the creative industries require governmental support due to the nature of their activities (e.g., freelancers, the self-employed and those on zero-hours contracts) ( Chandler and Cuneo, 2021 , Burger and Easton, 2020 ). For these categories, their income streams disappeared in the space of a few days following the introduction of restrictions. Governmental support is thus required in order to protect these categories of workers. Subsequent research should pay more attention to the heterogeneity of creative industry workers needs further investigation, in particular in order to understand how the most vulnerable categories of creative workers have been affected.

Research requires the development of the long-term policy responses needed to support the creative industries ( Ratten, 2020a ). Building on the strengths of the creative industries, there is a call for greater investment in the digital technologies needed to support the 'remote' delivery of products and services required to make the creative economy work ( Harper, 2020 ). Future research should also consider the digital maturity of the countries and organisations combatting the negative impact of the pandemic ( Dwivedi et al., 2020 ). In addition, it would be useful to investigate the attitudes and motivation of customers using new IT solutions to access the creative industries’ activities online and offline. Synergy and complementarity effects across the creative industries may thus become an important avenue for future research ( Williams et al., 2017 ).

6.3. Characteristics (C)

Our literature review has addressed this phenomenon of constructs from various perspectives, units of analysis, explanatory variables and case studies, and so on. Many studies considered digital technologies to be an important conduit for resilience and survival during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Kim et al., 2020 , Raimo et al., 2021 , Klein and Todesco, 2021 , Peruginelli et al., 2021 ). Indeed, digital technologies have been considered a determinant to foster business model innovation, as well as a new way of creating and capturing value ( Al-Debei and Avison, 2010 , Gordijn and Akkermans, 2001 ), in particular in the creative industries ( Li, 2020 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic has a number of lessons for decision-makers, including the importance of adapting to highly-volatile business environments, digital technology adoption strategies, and the digital maturity of organisations ( Dwivedi et al., 2020 , Fletcher and Griffiths, 2020 , Kim et al., 2020 ). It is therefore important to further understand the relationship between digital technologies and organisational capabilities in creative industries during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

For organisational resilience during the pandemic, digital capabilities have become one of the most important elements of organisational capabilities. We consider digital capabilities (DCs) to be a crucial element of the dynamic capabilities framework ( Teece, 2012 ), which is important for business performance ( Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000 , Arend, 2014 , Teece and Leih, 2016 , Rashid and Ratten, 2021 ). Digital capabilities could be operationalized in order to respond and adapt to rapid changes in the environment ( Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000 ), e.g., as in the case of the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, the ability of businesses to respond to changes in their external environment ( Marshall et al., 2015 , Dahles and Susilowati, 2015 ) - in other words, their adaptive capacity - could further assist firms and individuals in the creative industries to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We refer here to the “capacity for an enterprise to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of turbulent change” ( Fiksel, 2006, p. 16 ). Drawing on the resilience literature ( Archer, 2009 , Williams and Vorley, 2017 , Heeks and Ospina, 2019 , Eikhof, 2020 ) we developed a response matrix to the COVID-19 pandemic for the creative industries.

This matrix explains how digital capabilities and the ability to adapt to changes using organizational resource capacity can influence the creative industries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is different from prior research on digital capabilities ( Li et al., 2016 , Herbane, 2013 , Khalil and Belitski, 2020 ) which did not show how these capabilities can be used to respond to exogenous shocks. We identified four potential strategic responses, namely constancy (low digital capabilities and low ability to adapt), adaptation to survive (high digital capabilities and low ability to adapt), adaptation to growth (high digital capabilities and high ability to adapt), and strategic stability (low digital capabilities and high ability to adapt) ( Fig. 5 ).

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Response matrix of the creative industries to the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: Authors.

The creative subsectors with low digital capabilities and low ability to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic are part of the “Constancy” response matrix quadrant (e.g., music industry, festivals, cultural events, theatres, supporting services to cultural venues). These types of creative industries are particularly ill-equipped to face the pandemic. Workers in these sectors were forced to suspend their business activities temporarily or indefinitely, and/or had to seek temporary employment to replace the loss of income. Many creative workers have lost their jobs and left the market due to low levels of digital readiness, an inability to adapt and lack of resource capacity, and because of the nature of the industry employment model (e.g., labour market regulation, part-time employment and self-employment) ( Patrick & Elsden, 2020 ).

The creative subsectors (e.g., social media, publishing and journalism) with low development of digital capabilities but a high ability to adapt to the new conditions appear in the “Adaptation to survive” response matrix quadrant. They are operating and seeking to implement digital solutions in order to create small revenue streams that can sustain their businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Connected Commerce Council, 2020 ).

The creative subsectors that combine high digital capabilities, capacity to adapt and advanced digital tools (e.g., digital competences, skills, expertise and platform-based business) continue to operate, meeting the parameters of the “Adaptation to growth” response matrix quadrant. Subsectors such as IT and software have demonstrated that they are well-equipped to develop digital technologies which the other creative subsectors could use to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, creative subsectors which were able to continue to (fully or partially) operate (e.g., museums, libraries, exhibitions) are placed in the “Strategic stability” response matrix quadrant. Some of them closed down their operations and used a combination of government support and cost reductions to endure the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic until they were allowed to reopen. Future studies may extend the research towards the response matrix on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses and the self-employed in the creative industries. It is also important to understand how the measures imposed by governments (e.g., job retention schemes) affected firms in the creative industries.

6.4. Methodology (M)

The reviewed literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries included both qualitative (e.g., Agostino et al., 2020 , Davies, 2020 , Temiz and Salelkar, 2020 ) and quantitative methods (regression analysis, Monte Carlo simulation). However, there are too few quantitative papers to examine this area for research ( Bae et al., 2021 , Apuke and Omar, 2021 , Koulouris et al., 2020 , Urbaczewski and Lee, 2020 ). Future studies could consider developing more sophisticated quantitative-based and mixed-method approaches when examining the social and economic impact of the pandemic on the creative industries. We developed several recommendations regarding research methods, data collection techniques and sample selection methods in order to improve the methodological rigor of the COVID-19 pandemic – creative industries research.

6.4.1. Methods to analyse the data and data collection

There are many opportunities to undertake research based on survey and multiple case study methods using primary data. Previous studies used mostly case-study analysis with small groups ( Gu et al., 2020 , Temiz and Salelkar, 2020 , Raimo et al., 2021 ), content analysis ( Young, 2020 , Ocholla, 2021 ), or review of the literature or government programmes ( Gabryelczyk, 2020 , Dümcke, 2021 , Verma and Gustafsson, 2020 ). The samples used in the reviewed literature were small, which restricted the generalisation of the results. In terms of the quantitative pathway, scholars could use the Eurostat database, in particular The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, IBISWorld, D&B Hoovers, and Crunchbase databases to access the firms or country data to investigate the similarities, differences, etc. The research would benefit from longitudinal studies to examine the dynamics of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the scholars could develop new frameworks and test the theoretical lenses using the collected data ( Paul & Rosado-Serrano, 2019 ).

6.4.2. Sample selection

There are several challenges related to sample selection. First, the vast majority of research investigated the companies in the creative industries, cultural organisations, or specific countries. Therefore, more research is needed towards the self-employed entrepreneurs, freelancers, multinational companies. With regards to the country selection reported in Table 1 , it will be beneficial to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic towards the creative industries in developed, developing, emerging and transitional economies as the research towards countries was rather sporadic. In addition, the research would benefit from the comparative studies with multi-countries selection. This would enable scholars to generalise the results of the research and provide policy implications.

7. Conclusions

In this paper, we presented a systematic literature review in order to understand the ways the creative industries have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic so far. This work provides a comprehensive and detailed overview. We argue that different creative subsectors encountered both positive and negative effects as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we identified areas within the creative subsectors which have responded differently to the COVID-19 pandemic. This enabled us to create the response matrix.

We demonstrated that the creative industries have not shown a sufficient resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic overall. The impact was particularly severe for self-employed and part-time creative workers, with the exception in the publishing, social media, IT and software subsectors. The subsectors, such as museums and libraries have been unable to fully exploit the digital technologies and infrastructure made available for online delivery of their products. Through our literature review, it became evident that the creative industries have been one of the most overlooked in economic recovery efforts in many countries ( Joffe, 2020 , Pacella et al., 2020 , Comunian and England, 2020 , Ratten, 2020a ).

In many cases, the creative industries were supported by government measures in the form of business grants and job retention schemes. However, in the longer run, if the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic persist, it is plausible that only the most resilient creative subsectors will survive. In order to prosper and grow, the creative industries would require an increase in their financial and human capital capacity. They will also need to employ digital safety nets and develop their digital skills further.

We argue that the resilience of the creative industries is important for their ability to survive, sustain their level of operations or workforce, and adapt in order to grow. Through our analysis we have identified essential conditions for survival and adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the adaptation and use of digital capabilities by the creative subsectors.

As one of the policy implications, we suggest the creation of a more centralised source of aid for the creative industries through professional associations and stakeholders ( Bazalgette, 2017 ). Such a centralised structure might have a range of advantages, namely lower overhead costs, access to a broader network of artists and opportunities, a centralised database of host organisations, a network of partners, and a mechanism to provide better overall support to the sector based on feedback ( OECD, 2018 ).

In addition, the bodies who make decisions on grants and funds need to provide clarity regarding uncertainty over COVID-19′s impact on grants and awards ( Chandler & Cuneo, 2021 ). Since artists were unable to take advantage of face-to-face networking opportunities, the role of the sector in supporting organisations and facilitating virtual connections will be vital. Other concerns (e.g., restrictions in accessing contacts and networks, community engagement) in the creative subsectors vary, so professional associations need to pay particular attention to supporting the needs of different subsectors ( Burger & Easton, 2020 ). Financial support is required for all these activities, e.g., longer-term commitments from major funders for the sector, funding to recover lost revenue, the creation of new approaches to income generation (partnerships with commercial sponsors, development of new commercial models, new forms of philanthropy, etc.).

We acknowledged that Table A2 , which covers future research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries, is limited to the scope of this study’s research question. This is understandable given the bibliometric review method. This literature review does not provide insights into the legitimacy of the organisational resilience theory, research method or measures used to undertake this study. In this research, we considered only peer-reviewed papers in recognised international journals which were published in English. The results of our study could be extended by taking into consideration books, abstracts and reports ( Ammirato et al., 2020 ). In addition, the themes developed as a result of this review may focus on the different units of analysis within each theme. While this does not allow the generalizability of findings across the themes, our interest in generating the six themes was to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses of different representative stakeholders within each theme. Taking into account that a solid systematic literature review covers at least a 10-year time period ( Paul & Criado, 2020 ), and up to 50 years ( Paul & Feliciano-Cestero, 2021 ), our literature review is limited to the events of the COVID-19 pandemic from November 2019 to April 2021. This research observed publications immediately after the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is still uncertainty about how long the pandemic will last, and there is a time-lag in publications exploring the consequences of the crisis.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the British Council Creative Spark Project for Kazakhstan (project number EV16040X) that enabled us to conduct this research.

Biographies

Olena Khlystova is a Henley Business School PhD student in the department of Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour. Her research interests that range across the creative sector, entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurship, economic growth and emerging economies. Olena gained her MA in International Business from the Kyiv National Economic University, Ukraine, in 2019. She leads the Research Project “Creative spark Kazakhstan” in creative industries funded by the British Council.

Professor Yelena Kalyuzhnova is a Professor and Director of The Centre for Euro-Asian studies at the University of Reading. She has a wide knowledge of the transition and emerging economies, was an economic adviser on Caspian issues to the Rt. Hon. Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, Q.C., House of Lords and an economic adviser to All-Party Parliamentary Group on Kazakhstan (2006-2010). Yelena is currently a Senior Visiting Research Fellow of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. She received a prestigious Bergson Prize for her paper “Corruption and Economic Development in Energy-Rich Economies”.

Professor Maksim Belitski is a Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, United Kingdom. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University Bloomington (US). He has worked for University of Bolzano (Italy), Loughborough University, University College London (UK), University of Leicester, University of Economics Bratislava, Belarusian State University. His research interests lie in the area of Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional economics, with a particular focus on Entrepreneurship as a spillover of knowledge and creativity. He is an Editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal.

Appendix A. 

See Table A1 , Table A2 .

Journals included in the literature review and the impact factor.

Future research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries.

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NPR suspends senior editor Uri Berliner after essay accusing outlet of liberal bias

Npr suspended senior editor uri berliner a week after he authored an online essay accusing the outlet of allowing liberal bias in its coverage..

creative essay about covid 19

NPR has suspended a senior editor who authored an essay published last week on an online news site in which he argued that the network had "lost America's trust" because of a liberal bias in its coverage, the outlet reported.

Uri Berliner was suspended Friday for five days without pay, NPR reported Tuesday . The revelation came exactly a week after Berliner publicly claimed in an essay for The Free Press, an online news publication, that NPR had allowed a "liberal bent" to influence its coverage, causing the outlet to steadily lose credibility with audiences.

The essay reignited the criticism that many prominent conservatives have long leveled against NPR and prompted newsroom leadership to implement monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, NPR reported. Berliner's essay also angered many of his colleagues and exposed NPR's new chief executive Katherine Maher to a string of attacks from conservatives over her past social media posts.

In a statement Monday to NPR, Maher refuted Berliner's claims by underscoring NPR's commitment to objective coverage of national issues.

"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," Maher said. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."

Heat exposure law: Florida joins Texas in banning local heat protections for outdoor workers

Berliner rails against NPR's coverage of COVID-19, diversity efforts

Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, argued in the Free Press essay that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.”

While he claimed that NPR has always had a "liberal bent" ever since he was hired at the outlet, he wrote that it has since lost its "open-minded spirit," and, hence, "an audience that reflects America."

The Peabody Award-winning journalist highlighted what he viewed as examples of the network's partisan coverage of several major news events, including the origins of COVID-19 and the war in Gaza . Berliner also lambasted NPR's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies – as reflected both within its newsroom and in its coverage – as making race and identity "paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

"All this reflected a broader movement in the culture of people clustering together based on ideology or a characteristic of birth," he wrote.

Uri Berliner's essay fuels conservative attacks on NPR

In response to the essay, many prominent conservatives and Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, launched renewed attacks at NPR for what they perceive as partisan coverage.

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo in particular targeted Maher for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network – her  first at a news organization . Among the posts singled out were  a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist .

Trump reiterated on his social media platform, Truth Social, his longstanding argument that NPR’s government funding should be rescinded.

NPR issues formal rebuke to Berliner

Berliner provided an NPR reporter with a copy of the formal rebuke for review in which the organization told the editor he had not been approved to write for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists.

NPR also said he publicly released confidential proprietary information about audience demographics, the outlet reported.

Leadership said the letter was a "final warning" for Berliner, who would be fired for future violations of NPR's policies, according to NPR's reporting. Berliner, who is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union, told the NPR reporter that he is not appealing the punishment.

A spokeswoman for NPR said the outlet declined to comment on Berliner's essay or the news of his suspension when reached Tuesday by USA TODAY.

"NPR does not comment on individual personnel matters, including discipline," according to the statement. "We expect all of our employees to comply with NPR policies and procedures, which for our editorial staff includes the NPR Ethics Handbook ."

NPR staffer express dismay; leadership puts coverage reviews in place

According to the NPR article, Berliner's essay also invoked the ire of many of his colleagues and the reporters whose stories he would be responsible for editing.

"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben said in a post last week on social media site X, though he didn't mention Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and [expletive] on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."

Amid the fallout, NPR reported that NPR's chief news executive Edith Chapin announced to the newsroom late Monday afternoon that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

Berliner expressed no regrets about publishing the essay in an interview with NPR, adding that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders.

"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners."

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

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Should Kidney Donors Be Paid?

A guest essay argued in favor of payments. Readers, including donors, offer divergent views.

An illustration of a shirtless man dangling his feet in a kidney-shaped pool.

To the Editor:

Re “ We Should Be Allowed to Sell Our Kidneys ,” by Dylan Walsh (Opinion guest essay, April 4):

I’ve seen firsthand how kidney transplants can transform the lives of patients living with debilitating renal disease who are often forced to spend hours each week in painful and exhausting dialysis treatments. Mr. Walsh is correct that we need to greatly boost the number of living organ donors. But before we consider paying people for their kidneys, we need to ensure that every potential donor has an equitable chance to also receive a lifesaving organ transplant.

Even though undocumented people can and do donate organs, far too many of the undocumented, Black and low-income clients we serve with severe renal disease are unable to receive treatment at transplant centers run by private hospitals, despite many of them being excellent medical candidates for a successful transplant.

It would be grossly unethical for our government to encourage them to sell their organs when they receive far less than an equitable share of needed organs.

There are many steps the federal and state governments can take to gather data on transplant equity and require tax-exempt health systems to provide fair and equitable access to transplant care, regardless of immigration or insurance status, income or race. We must create a fair system before we consider a market for organs.

Karina Albistegui Adler New York The writer is co-director of health justice for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

As president of the American Society of Transplantation, I know there is an extreme need for additional organs to support lifesaving organ transplantation. Dylan Walsh aptly describes the challenge.

We at the A.S.T. support the author’s intent to increase living donation. However, A.S.T. policy opposes direct remuneration for organs, as it would encourage donations for financial rather than altruistic reasons, thereby propagating disparities. Instead, we aim to remove disincentives that prevent living donors from providing a lifesaving gift.

The A.S.T. is advancing effective solutions. The Living Donor Protection Act , which ensures that life, disability and long-term care insurers cannot discriminate against living donors, has bipartisan support. Other legislation provides a one-time tax credit for living donors that would offset donors’ expenses without providing perverse incentives. The A.S.T. also encourages companies to offer paid leave for living donors through our Circle of Excellence initiative.

Living donors alone cannot meet demand. The A.S.T. is engaged in ongoing work with the Health Resources and Services Administration, patients and other stakeholders to optimize the existing system for deceased donor transplantation, maximize the use of all available organs and minimize non-use.

These activities, along with research on the best strategies to remove disincentives, will result in meaningful progress. Selling organs is not the answer we need now.

Josh Levitsky Chicago The writer is a professor of medicine, surgery and medical education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Five years ago I donated my left kidney to a stranger after seeing his flyer posted in Starbucks. I was not paid money for my efforts. Yet it was one of the most rewarding endeavors in my life. Throughout the process, I learned many of the lessons that Dylan Walsh discusses.

Even though it’s too late for me to benefit financially, I strongly support the idea of paying future donors. The criticism that rich, powerful people will take advantage of the poor or vulnerable is based on the incorrect assumption that it’s not a rational decision to incur personal risks for financial and other benefits.

It is legal for women to act as paid surrogates carrying a pregnancy that poses at least as many potential medical risks as the nephrectomy. Paying people for kidneys is no different.

As a social worker who has worked with vulnerable people for decades, I believe it’s possible to create safety protocols to ensure that no one is making a decision that is coerced or lacking proper informed consent. There is no better reward than the good feeling of saving a life. Paying someone to do it is just icing on the cake.

Catherine Pearlman Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Nineteen years ago, I donated a kidney to my younger sister with the hope she would live another 10 good years. She had 12 good years, two not so good, and died at the age of 63. I am now 72 and have no regrets, but I remain strongly opposed to the concept of selling kidneys.

The organ transplant community tells only half the story, which is that donors should expect to live well with just one kidney. The other half of the story is what might be involved in recuperating from major surgery. To those involved in physical labor, I would tell them to be prepared to lose your livelihood for up to a year. Sure, there will be anecdotes like “I was mowing my lawn a week later!” But for me, even months later, my children told me that I walked funny.

With a Ph.D. in ethics, I am well aware of the ongoing debate of autonomy versus paternalism on all kinds of subjects. It’s too simplistic to say, “People should be allowed the personal freedom to sell a kidney.” We live in a society that limits our choices in all kinds of ways and for good reason.

In this case, I don’t see the transplant community ever being fully transparent about all the consequences of making this choice, just as they weren’t with me.

Thomas P. Roberts Hillsborough, N.C.

Dylan Walsh’s essay struck a chord. I have failing kidneys, brought on by being one of the millions of Americans with diabetes. Now 75, I long ago made major changes relating to diet, weight and exercise. Unfortunately, my progressive chronic kidney disease refused to get better.

So many of those thousands of Americans who are on waiting lists are young people deserving of so much more life to live. With so few donor kidneys available even for them, at my age I’ve made the decision not to seek a donor kidney, not to add my name to the waiting list. It would not be fair for those who have yet to experience a full life to miss out because I was next in line.

Would I like more time to enjoy life, love, family, etc.? Of course. If Mr. Walsh’s piece gains traction, and one day there are donor kidneys aplenty, I look forward to changing my mind.

Esteban S. Corona, Calif. The writer’s full name is not being used to protect his medical privacy.

The essay by Dylan Walsh highlights the travesty of our kidney transplant program. We are allowed to sell our blood, serum, sperm or ova but not kidneys, which are in short supply.

In addition to Mr. Walsh’s suggestion I would add another: Trade a kidney to stay out of jail. If select first offenders were given the opportunity to avoid a prison sentence by donating a kidney, they would benefit immediately by avoiding incarceration.

Society would benefit from obtaining a young healthy kidney while avoiding the cost of prison sentences. The offender/donor would avoid the many negative aspects of imprisonment. The kidney donation will save the life of someone who might otherwise die of kidney failure.

The experience of saving a life might also contribute to the rehabilitation of a first offender.

Robert W. Morgan Vero Beach, Fla. The writer is an epidemiologist.

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    Writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19 requires a thoughtful approach to present your arguments effectively. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling persuasive essay on this topic: Choose a Specific Angle. Start by narrowing down your focus. COVID-19 is a broad topic, so selecting a specific aspect or issue related to it will make ...

  5. How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay

    Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays. Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic. The global impact of COVID-19, the disease ...

  6. Covid 19 Essays: Examples, Topics, & Outlines

    Here are some essay topic ideas related to Covid-19: 1. The impact of Covid-19 on mental health: Discuss how the pandemic has affected individuals' mental well-being and explore potential solutions for addressing mental health challenges during this time. 2.

  7. Essay On Covid-19: 100, 200 and 300 Words

    Essay On Covid-19: 100, 200 and 300 Words. COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is a global pandemic that has affected people all around the world. It first emerged in a lab in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and quickly spread to countries around the world. This virus was reportedly caused by SARS-CoV-2. Since then, it has spread rapidly to ...

  8. A Guide To Writing The Covid-19 Essay For The Common App

    Having recognized this, the Common App added a new optional 250-word essay that will give universities a chance to understand the atypical high school experience students have had. The prompt will ...

  9. Writing about COVID-19 in a college essay GreatSchools.org

    The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic. The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges. Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams. Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions ...

  10. How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay

    The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Click to toggle navigation menu.

  11. Essay on COVID-19 Pandemic

    Essay on COVID-19 Pandemic. Published: 2021/11/08. Number of words: 1220. As a result of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, daily life has been negatively affected, impacting the worldwide economy. Thousands of individuals have been sickened or died as a result of the outbreak of this disease. When you have the flu or a viral infection, the ...

  12. The COVID-19 pandemic as a scientific and social challenge in the 21st

    Go to: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has spread around the globe with unprecedented consequences for the health of millions of people. While the pandemic is still in progress, with new incidents being reported every day, the resilience of the global society is constantly being ...

  13. Essay: Combating COVID-19 with creative thinking

    February 6, 2022. File photo: A health worker grabs at-home COVID-19 test kits to be handed out. (David Dermer/AP) Swift yet thoughtful thinking and creative action are critical when it comes to addressing the threat presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. And in Delaware County, which recently had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the region ...

  14. Creative Resilience and COVID-19: Figuring the Everyday in ...

    The essays included in this volume are concerned with how artists, writers, and advocates uncover the hope, plasticity, and empowerment evident in periods of worldwide loss and struggle—factors which are critical to both overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and fashioning the post-COVID-19 era. ... 'Creative Resilience and COVID-19 offers a vital ...

  15. Critical Essay on Social Impact of Covid 19

    The pandemic gave people a creative push to think beyond their mundane lives. People started going back to their hobbies that they once enjoyed doing, and learned new skills, whether it was a father who learned how to cook or a mother who learned to use the computer or gadgets from her children. ... Critical Essay on Social Impact of Covid 19 ...

  16. Going Back to School after Covid-19: Narrative Essay

    The Covid 19 pandemic has affected many aspects of school life, all in order to prevent any further spread of the disease. Our school is working hard to go back to the normal school life we used to have before the global pandemic. Yet, parents are still worried about their kids, and teachers about their students.

  17. My Life Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic

    My content explains what my life was like during the last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected my life both positively and negatively. It also explains what it was like when I graduated from High School and how I want the future generations to remember the Class of 2020. Class assignment, Western Civilization (Dr. Marino).

  18. Stuck in the Middle: An Illustrated Essay on COVID-19 and Other Past

    The project is a visual essay, in a graphic novel-esque style, exploring how the coronavirus compares to other illness outbreaks of the past century and how the associated restrictions have impacted me at an individual level. The creative nonfiction essay intertwines historical perspectives as a way to inform, contextualize, and reflect my own experience with COVID-19.

  19. Argumentative Essay about Covid 19

    Argumentative Essay about Covid 19. This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples. COVID-19 is an emerging public health problem, which started in China at the end of 2019 and gradually affected the majority of countries including India (1).

  20. COVID-19 Was a Turning Point for Health

    It was with these questions in mind that, in 2021, I partnered with my colleague Michael Stein to write a series of essays reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic.

  21. Creativity and Innovation in Times of Crisis (COVID-19)

    The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease has posed great challenges to the worldwide economy and people's daily lives and will have far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease. At the same time, crisis is also a strong driver of creativity and innovation. Indeed, if examined closely, one can already observe abundant creativity and innovation emerging at the national, institutional ...

  22. What the response to Covid-19 can teach us about creativity

    Elevate your impact, reignite your ambition and challenge your thinking with a programme designed to take highly accomplished senior executives to the next level. Read more. Select up to 4 programmes to compare. Select one more to compare. Pandemic What the response to Covid-19 can teach us about creativity by Richard Hytner.

  23. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries: A

    Based on the keywords and abstracts from 59 papers, we used a software tool VOSviewer to create a visualization network to identify the themes related to the impact of COVID-19 on the creative industries. Co-word analysis was used to apply text-mining techniques to the papers' titles, abstracts, and keywords.

  24. NASEM releases evidence review on COVID-19 vaccine safety

    The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, but do not appear to cause infertility, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell's palsy, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) or heart attack, according to a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report examining whether COVID-19 vaccines can cause certain harms.

  25. Kai Tak Covid isolation centre suitable for use as creative hub, site

    A disused Covid-19 isolation centre on a prime Hong Kong site could get a new lease of life as a base for the creative industries, the development chief said on Wednesday. Secretary for ...

  26. NPR suspends editor Uri Berliner over essay accusing outlet of bias

    Berliner rails against NPR's coverage of COVID-19, diversity efforts. Berliner, a senior business editor who has worked at NPR for 25 years, argued in the Free Press essay that "people at every ...

  27. NPR in Turmoil After It Is Accused of Liberal Bias

    An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives. ... including the origins of Covid-19 and the ...

  28. Different drugs, interchangeable names, and a mystery illness

    But while the story of Makena's rise and fall may be well known, one aspect of the drug's legacy has gone untold. A widely cited study that supported Makena's approval mixed up the names of ...

  29. Readers respond to essays on hospital taxes and more

    Readers respond to First Opinion essays on nonprofit hospitals and taxes, diversity in health care, ADHD in women and girls, and more. ... With Covid-19 vaccines, initial efforts focused on ...

  30. Opinion

    A guest essay argued in favor of payments. Readers, including donors, offer divergent views. To the Editor: Re " We Should Be Allowed to Sell Our Kidneys ," by Dylan Walsh (Opinion guest essay ...