A Longitudinal Interview Study of People with Long COVID: Uncertainties, Liminality, and Processes of Becoming.

Abstract

Current estimates indicate around 6% of US adults have experienced long COVID symptoms. Given the novelty of both COVID and long COVID, those who continue to be ill after an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection have little precedence on which to rely when navigating the medical (e.g. diagnoses, treatment options), social (e.g. others' reactions, isolation), and personal (e.g. roles, identities) sources of uncertainty that accompany the illness. In this study, we explore uncertainty as a process of liminality, a heuristically useful lens for demonstrating how uncertainties intertwine, compound, contradict, and change across time, and how people are continually in a process of "becoming." We interviewed 19 people with long COVID five times during the middle stages of the pandemic (Summer 2021 to Summer 2022; 89 total interviews). Findings illustrate how liminality is a body-self dialectic characterized by physical changes that bear upon valued identities and how this dialectic is shaped by a sociocultural and historical context comprising medical, social, political, and mediated spheres of life. We discuss the contributions of this research for theorizing about uncertainty, conducting longitudinal qualitative research, and living with chronic illness.