Ontarians can share their COVID-19 stories on new website to get policymakers thinking

A group of social media users has launched an online platform for Ontarians to share how they've been impacted by COVID-19. 

These comments are among those already posted on MyCOVIDStory:

• "My wife and baby are currently at her parents' house because we are all scared from the positive cases at my work."
• "I wake up filled with dread and anxiety."
• "All I want is for my child to be back in school in-person."
• "Too tired to stand up most days.

The group behind the project met over Twitter; since the launch of MyCOVIDStory on April 21, dozens of unique stories have been collected.

Angelo Mateo, one of the members behind the project, said it's important to highlight individual stories as it's too easy to tune out numbers and statistics. 

"Each one of those people are human beings and they're suffering," Mateo said of the daily case counts and death numbers. "So we wanted to show that these data points are actually stories."

The website is reminiscent of online communities or forums that coalesce around shared experiences. 

Mateo said what's being shared so far aligns with what many doctors and medical professionals have been saying throughout the pandemic. 

"[People] have these stories that are just heartbreaking to hear about: How they have to go into work, how the virus spreads within their family, how family members die one by one." 

Identities protected

People can post stories anonymously or share their postal codes so what's written can be used to advocate to politicians in ridings across the province.

Kathryn Adams-Sloan, chair of the women's caucus to the Canadian Association for Social Work Education, joined the team behind the website.

Adams-Sloan said they have a process to mitigate the risks that may arise. 

"When the stories come in, we actually have moderators that go through them. They'll be looking for things like if somebody accidentally provided identifying information, something that could sort of narrow it down to who this might be."

Adams-Sloan used the example of women who live with abusive partners — ultimately, they don't want to pressure people into sharing information that might put them in harm's way. 

"If they're going to share their story, we don't necessarily want them to feel like they have to put their postal code up there because that could be something that's more identifying."

She said the stories further illustrate how decisions about the pandemic have impacted people and exposed inequities.

"We are all in this pandemic, but we're experiencing it very differently depending on who we are, where we come from, what we look like, what our statuses are, how much money we have, what our ability level is like," said Adams-Sloan. "It's very intersectionally loaded." 

'Stories can change the world'

Mateo, a prospective graduate student of the public policy program at McMaster University in Hamilton, said he hopes the stories help policymakers better understand what people are going through and how policies affect lives.

Mike Wickett, who helped set up the website, said while he's not pushing for any specific policy, he hopes the stories can help leverage efforts to get targeted vaccinations, paid sick days and rapid testing in communities across Ontario.

Waterloo region has rapid testing, the result of advocacy from leaders in the private sector.

Mateo said that while he loves going over the numbers, he's a storyteller at heart.

"I believe that stories can change the world … every number has a story in this and in order to really get ourselves out of COVID, we need to understand other people's suffering."