‘The day everything changed’: Australians’ COVID-19 risk narratives

Concepts and practices related to risk are central to people’s experiences of the COVID-19 crisis and attempts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Sociological perspectives and empirical research on risk and uncertainty have much to offer for insights into how people conceptualise and respond to health risks such those associated with this new pandemic: including identification of the geographical, political, socioeconomic and other contextual dimensions. In this article, we provide findings from a qualitative interview-based project on Australians’ experiences of the first six months of the pandemic in 2020, including the national lockdown. A total of 40 adults from across Australia took part in a semi-structured telephone interview. Adopting a narrative analysis approach, we explored people’s biographical, embodied, spatial and affective experiences in what we term their ‘COVID-19 risk narratives’. We further identified the events and circumstances that contributed to people beginning to feel at heightened personal risk from COVID-19 or which helped them feel safe or less vulnerable. The findings highlight the roles of factors including media coverage, previous experiences with infectious disease, beliefs about personal health and immunity, the government’s implementation of containment measures, observations of others’ behaviours and experiences, interactions with healthcare providers, geographical location and concern for family members. We argue that surfacing the interplay of these dynamic complex and highly contextual forces and relationships is vital to understanding COVID-19 risk understandings and practices.