Emotional risk work during the pandemic: Healthcare professionals' perceptions from a COVID-19 ward

In March 2020, COVID-19 wards were established in hospitals in Denmark. Healthcare professionals from a variety of specialities and wards were transferred to these new wards to care for patients admitted with severe COVID-19 infections. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a COVID-19 ward at a hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, including focus group interviews with nursing staff, we intended to explore practices in a COVID-19 ward by seeking insight into the relation between the work carried out and the professionals' ways of talking about it. We used a performative approach of studying how the institutional ways of handling pandemic risk work comes into being and relates to the health professionals' emerging responses. The empirical analysis pointed at emotional responses by the nursing staff providing COVID-19 care as central. To explore these emotional responses we draw on the work of Mary Douglas and Deborah Lupton's concept of the ‘emotion-risk-assemblage'. Our analysis provides insight into how emotions are contextually produced and linked to institutional risk understandings. We show that work in the COVID-19 ward was based on an institutional order that was disrupted during the pandemic, producing significant emotions of insecurity. Although these emotions are structurally produced, they are simultaneously internalised as feelings of incompetence and shame.

COVID-19 and the family courts: key practitioner findings in children cases

In March 2020, stringent social distancing measures were introduced across England and Wales to reduce the spread of Covid-19. These measures have presented significant challenges for the family justice system. This article sets out the findings of interviews conducted with professionals in the North East of England who have represented or otherwise supported litigants in private and public children proceedings since social distancing measures were introduced. The findings reveal that whilst practitioners are broadly positive about their experiences of shorter non-contested hearings, they nonetheless have concerns about the effectiveness of remote/hybrid hearings in ensuring a fair and just process in lengthy and complex cases. In particular, the findings indicate that the move to remote hearings has exacerbated pre-existing barriers to justice for unrepresented and vulnerable litigants. The aims of this article are not to ‘name and shame' any particular court but to highlight evidence of good practice in the North East of England and provide scope for improving practitioners' and litigants' experiences within current restrictions.

"To honour cleanness and shame filth”: medical facemasks as the narrative of nationalism and modernity in China

As the Covid-19 pandemic has swept across the world, the wearing of medical facemasks has become a hot topic on social media. In China, the relevant discourses are entangled with codes of medical science, national self-esteem and appropriated modernity. These discourses can be dated back to the narrative established by Dr Wu Lien-teh, the great fighter in the Manchurian plagues of 1910–1911 and 1920–1921. This paper reveals that Wu and his colleagues used different strategies when displaying to the Western world their achievements in the anti-plague battle and when proving the effectiveness of the Western medical and hygienic system to Chinese people. Wu and his colleagues used metonymies, analogues and metaphors on or related to medical facemasks to illustrate the possibility of building a modernised nation with sovereignty. Because the construction of a sanitary system in China has always been labelled as a patriotic movement (Rogaski, Ruth. 2004. Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 285–298), the wearing of medical facemasks has constituted an important part of the narrative of nationalism and hygienic modernity. This discourse continues to play a significant role in today's campaign against the coronavirus.

Tracing Dystopian Insta-Emotions among Hong Kong Trans Men

Digital media is often understood as the primary platform to open up new social worlds for transgender men. The plethora of information from DIY videos on testosterone injections to daily transition vlogs has seen transgender men creating, developing, and curating themselves on digital platforms. This study focuses on the representation of Hong Kong trans men on digital media. The ongoing COVID pandemic has conjured up a wide array of cultural imaginations on the end of the world. Hong Kong has also long collected global imaginations of dystopia, cyberpunk, and science fiction. Under this larger context, I draw upon McKenzie and Patulny's (2021) notion of dystopia as "a process, a practice, a method of understanding and critiquing" to examine dystopian emotions among Hong Kong trans men through digital ethnographic fieldwork on Instagram and face-to-face in-depth interviews in 2020-2021. I argue that dystopia beliefs lay the groundwork for Insta-emotions to emerge, in overt and subversive ways, that speak to the resilience of transgender men.

Shame in the Clash of Two "Normals": The Case of Covid-19 in Tasmania

This paper deals with the general question of what a segment of sociocultural reality in the capital of Tasmania looked like over the time span from the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in China up to Australia's lockdown in mid-March 2020, or more specifically, what took place in direct, daily contacts between people, in the meeting or clash of coexisting incongruous behavioral norms - the "old" (habitual up until then) and the "new" (modified due to the crisis) patterns of interpersonal behavior. In this period of health and social crises, which is here termed liminal, shame was generated. It arose as an emotional reaction to the discrepancy between the thinking, feeling and behavior of interviewees and the thinking, feeling and behavior of members of their social environment, a discrepancy that became apparent in the course of their mutual interactions and whose object was a different emotion - fear. The fieldwork was conducted in mid-2020 in Hobart, in the form of semi-structured interviews with several immigrants from the states of the former Yugoslavia. As it was aimed at studying their fear, and only in second place their feeling of shame, in this paper I have limited myself to a narrative interpretation of the origins and object of shame, with the intention of, on the one hand, highlighting the principal factors in the construction of shame and, on the other, examining what it was in connection with fear that aroused shame in the given context. It was noted that, among other things, shame was culturally generated in the given interactions which occurred within secondary relationships and specific environmental contexts and, still more broadly, as part of the crisis caused by the general spread of the virus, and that, as the object of shame, fear emerged as an inappropriate emotion, initially in the sense of the disproportion between the intensity of fear and its object (i.e. the threat posed by the virus).

CONTINUING DIABETES in PREGNANCY CARE during COVID-19 in A MULTI-ETHNIC, SOCIOECONOMICALLY DIVERSE POPULATION in AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND

Background: Diabetes in pregnancy (DIP) affects 6% of pregnancies annually in Aotearoa New Zealand, and 12% of pregnancies in our service at The Whatu Ora Counties Manukau, a multi-ethnic, socioeconomically diverse region. At the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, telephone clinics (teleclinics) replaced face-to-face visits for those with DIP. However, there is limited information on the views of patients affected by DIP in Aotearoa about their maternity care, and their care since the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim(s): To explore the views of patients within Counties Manukau about their maternity care for DiP, including their perceptions of teleclinics. Method(s): Semi-structured interviews with women via telephone. Interviewers were matched by ethnicity with participants. Responses were analysed using a qualitative Framework Analysis. Result(s): We interviewed 20 women: New Zealand Maori ( n = 5), Pacific ( n = 4), Asian ( n = 5), and other ethnicity (European/New Zealand European) ( n = 4). Three key themes were identified, (1) 'shock, shame and adjustment', (2) 'learning to manage DIP' and (3) 'preparation for birth.' Participants primarily reported positive care experiences and appreciated both face-to-face and teleclinics. Women of Maori and Pacific ethnicity reported that the visible presence of healthcare professionals of a similar ethnicity within the DIP service would enhance their comfort and facilitate cultural understanding. Conclusion(s): This study adds important insights into the pregnancy care experience of a multi-ethnic and socioeconomically diverse group of women with DIP. Continuing teleclinics may be useful outside of a pandemic setting. More work is required to improve support and communication around diagnosis and management, particularly for gestational diabetes.

Modeling technology changes in air transport in the presence of a market shock: A passenger-based analysis

This paper proposes a formal model to assess the introduction of hydrogen technology in the air transport sector when the initial market is uncovered, a situation relevant to the current COVID-19 crisis. The "flight shame” movement causes some passengers to leave the market while allowing for some willingness-to-pay for cleaner technologies. Starting from a horizontally differentiated duopoly between airlines with old technology and an uncovered market, the introduction of hydrogen technology provides the opportunity for vertical differentiation in line with the increased environmental consciousness of passengers. The principal methodological novelties start from an uncovered market and combine horizontal and vertical differentiation. The main results are the airlines' optimal strategy sets and the adoption strategy dynamics with an increased valuation of quality by passengers. We justify a regulator's intervention and draw several potential policy implications from this dynamic, such as a minimum subsidy level and educational advertising. © 2022

Transforming Shame in the Pandemic: An International Study.

Shame is an unconscious, somehow unattended and neglected emotion and occurs when individual and socio-cultural norms are violated. It often impacts negatively on the self and others across cultures. During the Covid-19 crises, shame has become an important emotion with a powerful effect, depending on how it is experienced within the socio-cultural context. This article explores shame in international perspectives in the context of Covid-19 and addresses the question how shame is transformed from an existential positive psychology (PP2.0) perspective. The study uses a qualitative research paradigm and explores shame and its transformation during Covid-19. Purposeful and snowball sampling was used. The sample consisted of 24 individuals (16 female, 8 male), of 13 different nationalities. Data were collected from written interviews and analyzed through thematic analysis. Ethical considerations were followed; ethical approval was given by a university. Findings show that participants become very worried, anxious, scared, sad, and shocked when they or individuals in their close relationships contracted Covid-19. Shame plays an important role during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the meaning and experience of shame during Covid-19 is strongly dependent on the socio-cultural background of the individual who is experiencing the disease. Individuals use different strategies and mechanisms to deal with and transform shame in the context of Covid-19.

Single women's leisure during the Coronavirus pandemic

The novel coronavirus has resulted in self-isolation and physical distancing for millions of people. In this critical commentary, we analyze the effects of these practices on our leisure as two single, professional, childless women who live alone. Women face societal expectations that they will play large roles in caregiving. We argue that in the current pandemic, women who are not responsible for the provision of care may face amplified resentment or belittlement for engaging in regular leisure activities. Further, many people have been limited in interacting with those outside of their household. For those who live alone, this is particularly isolating and has a huge effect on the types of leisure in which they can engage and removes them from their established networks of support and safety. We show that removal from our social and care networks can result in feelings of selfishness, shame, and fear during leisure participation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

"Suicide addict": The sovereignty of shame in the dissociated mind

Through her obsessive artwork of infinite dots, the artist Yayoi Kusama has been expressing her depression and suicidal ideation for over eight decades. To this day, Kusama has chosen to reside by night in a mental hospital in Tokyo while during the day she continues producing her works of art with their infinitude of elaborate repetition which mirrors the loop of her depression and the monotony of her obsession with death. The title of this paper is borrowed from Kusama's book (2005) and poem. Suicide, according to the French philosopher and sociologist Emile Durkheim, is a result of both emotional and social factors and the two are inseparable. In his book Suicide (1897), Durkheim concluded that the more socially integrated and connected a person is, the less likely he or she is to commit suicide. He came up with the term anomie. Anomie is a state or condition of instability in individuals or in a society resulting from the breakdown or absence of social norms and values. He associated anomie with the influence of a loss of societal norms that was too sudden and too rigid. When this rigidity becomes normalised and obsolete as a result of the lack of connection to a sense of purpose and belonging to society, an increase in suicide is then predictable. We can see this in times of economic austerity as well as in periods of political and societal upheaval such as the one we are currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Application of a Brief Mindfulness Intervention in People with Severe Covid-19

Introduction: The practice of mindfulness, formalised in the structuring of well-known protocols such as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), have proven to be very effective in reducing stress related to chronic conditions (Cherkin et al., 2016;Johns et al., 2015) and of depression (Hilton et al, 2017;Schumer, Lindsay, & David Creswell, 2018). However, these protocols generally require a high level of engagement for participants, which is why, in the present exploratory study, we opted to evaluate the implementation of a shor and less intensive Mindfulness-based protocol, but which showed good results on health-related outcomes, even with a single session (Howarth, Smith, Perkins-Porras, & Ussher, 2019). The overall objective of this exploratory study was to develop and evaluate the implementation of a short-term, Mindfulness-based intervention conducted in telemedicine, compared with usual care alone, on the symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Stress Disorder (PTSD) of persons who have previously tested positive for COVID-19, admitted to a resuscitation and/or intensive care unit and then in pulmonary rehabilitation following negativization. Method(s): The present pilot randomised controlled trial compared the impact of a Mindfulness-based brief intervention conducted in telemedicine (n=20) for a period of 5-6 sessions of 45 minutes each, for a total commitment of 3 weeks, to a wait-list control (n=20), involving people who have been previously tested positive for COVID-19, admitted to intensive care or reanimation and subsequently in respiratory rehabilitation following negativization. The General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Impact of Event Scale (IES), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), State Shame and Guilt Scale-8, Peritraumatic Perceptions of Fear and life threat, Psychological General Well-being Index (PGWBI), respiratory functions, oxygen saturation, haemogasanalysis were detected at baseline, 3 weeks, and 3 months. Descriptive analyses were conducted with respect to clinical and socio-demographic variables, as well as the primary and secondary outcomes. All statistical analyses were conducted according to an intention-to-treat system. In addition, using linear mixed models, intra- and inter-group comparisons were carried out on the primary and secondary outcome indices. The analyses were considered statistically significant for p<.005. Moreover, semi-structured interviews conducted according to the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach detected the participants' emotional experiences, expectations, and beliefs about their experience of illness. Themes that emerged and recurring themes during the course and interviews were analysed from a qualitative point of view, distinguishing the data emerged from the participants' interviews and those from the carers. Result(s): This pilot study found that the Experimental Group pursued improvements in terms of symptoms related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the secondary outcomes outlined above over the course of the three surveys. Furthermore, with regard to the parameters pertaining to respiratory function, spirometry and arterial and venous haematochemical examinations, these were not inferior to those achieved by the Control Group. From the qualitative analysis part, it was possible to detect the presence of descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual comments. Relevant was the theme of contact with death and the emotional experiences associated with it, which emerged in different keys in both patients and caregivers. It is also useful to note the reported progressive change of perspective on how the patient deals with the remaining symptoms of COVID-19 during the proposed sessions. Conclusion(s): This study showed the potential of an affordable and widely accessible Mindfulness-based brief intervention in clinical practice, offering a view of hospital-territory continuity following the acute phase of COVID-19 disease.

Personal and professional reflections: Shame and race

In this chapter, I will discuss my understanding of shame and race having been born, and having lived and worked in racialised societies. I decided to write from my personal and professional experiences of seeing people who expressed their feelings of being made to feel ashamed and what actions they took to be relieved of these feelings. On refection, during this year of the enforced "lock down" caused by the pandemic of COVID-19, I have had more time to observe people whilst standing at the stipulated distance of two metres. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Self-awareness, distress disclosure, and peer connectedness as moderators of the relationship between shame and counselor self-efficacy among counseling trainees

Using a sample of 85 counselors in training, this online, survey-based moderation study examined the relationship between shame and counselor self-efficacy using a multiple linear regression model;it also examined self-awareness, distress disclosure, and peer connectedness as potential moderators between the relationship of shame and counselor self-efficacy, utilizing the Hayes PROCESS Macro. A significant inverse relationship was indicated between shame and counselor self-efficacy. Subscales utilized to assess for self-awareness did indicate moderation between the various subscales of internalized shame and counselor self-efficacy. Distress disclosure did moderate the relationship between Embarrassment and Exposed elements of shame and Client Distress subscale of counselor self-efficacy. Peer connection did not indicate moderation as hypothesized. Age and direct client hours were utilized as covariates in this study. Younger participants tended to report higher levels of self-efficacy than older participants, while those who had more direct client hours tended to report higher counselor self-efficacy. Results from this study further expound on the idea that the negative function that shame has on self makes it harder to also hold the positive view of self that relates to counselor self-efficacy. Principles from the Dunning-Kruger effect(Kruger & Dunning, 1999) appeared to give context of results around the moderating relationship self-awareness has with counselor self-efficacy. Key implications within the study highlight the importance of addressing shame within the context of counselor education. Development and purposeful use of self-reflective activities within courses and supervision can aid in buffering the relationship shame has on efficacy in handling relationship conflicts within counseling sessions. Future directions might include more focus on differences in shame found in younger and older counseling students and more development in the theory and assessment of self-awareness to account for principles outlined within the Dunning-Kruger effect. Development of a study that correlates distress disclosure scores with the amount of distress students are currently experiencing may provide fruitful information for supervision and educational development. Replication of the moderation study not during the COVID-19 pandemic may provide different results or further study identifying the benefits that connection with peers has within the counselor education process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Ashamed or afraid? Traumatic symptom severity and emotional activations of Covid-19-related events.

This study investigates the role of shame, guilt, and fear activations related to Covid-19 stressful experiences in predicting traumatic symptoms. We focused on 72 Italian adults recruited in Italy. The primary outcome was to explore the traumatic symptoms severity and negative emotions associated with COVID-19-related experiences. The presence of traumatic symptoms was met by a total of 36%. Shame and fear activations predicted traumatic scales. Qualitative content analysis identified Self-centered, and Externally-centered counterfactual thoughts and five relevant subcategories were also identified. The present findings suggest the importance of shame in the maintenance of traumatic symptoms related to COVID-19 experiences.

3. Adolescents' Perceptions of Mental Health around the World: Key Findings from a 13-Country Qualitative Study

Purpose: Adolescence (ages 10-19) is a sensitive developmental period for the emergence of mental and behavioral health problems, but there is a lack of multi-country qualitative studies that explore how adolescents themselves understand these critical challenges. As part of UNICEF's 2021 State of the World's Children Report, the Global Early Adolescent Study collaborated with organizations in 13 countries to hold a series of focus group discussions (FGDs) with adolescents focused on mental health. These FGDs aimed to (1) understand adolescents' perspectives on significant mental health challenges in their age group, (2) understand adolescents' perspectives on the key risk and protective factors driving these challenges, and (3) understand the ways in which adolescents cope with these challenges, including barriers and facilitators to help-seeking. Methods: A total of 71 FGDs were conducted across 13 countries between February and June of 2021. Countries were selected to ensure geographic, economic, and cultural diversity, and included: Belgium, Chile, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Within each country, FGDs were stratified by sex and age such that there were at least two younger (ages 10-14) and two older (ages 15-19) focus groups. Depending on the COVID-19 restrictions at the time, FGDs were either held in-person or online. All FGDs were held in local languages and lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. FGDs were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and translated into English when necessary. These English translations were then coded and analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Results: Across diverse cross-cultural settings, a number of consistent findings emerged from the voices of adolescents. In particular, adolescents around the world emphasized the many contexts that drive mental health challenges, including family adversity, community violence, unsupportive school environments, poverty, social media culture, and restrictive gender norms. They also discussed significant barriers to seeking help for mental health challenges, such as community stigma, lack of social support, and fears of invalidation. These barriers frequently resulted in adolescents coping with these challenges without support, often using maladaptive strategies. Importantly, adolescents generally described and understood mental health in terms of distress (e.g., sadness, loneliness, shame, anger) rather than disorder (e.g., depression, anxiety). Conclusions: Above all, it was clear that adolescents around the world need much better formal and informal supports to adequately address mental and behavioral health problems, and that these responses must take into account the many contexts that contribute to these problems. Further, the non-clinical terminology frequently used by adolescents suggests that taking a purely diagnostic approach in addressing mental health challenges may exclude many adolescents in need of assistance. Sources of Support: Wellcome Trust.

Mechanism of online emotional support accompany group for stress: The role of social support.

Objective: To investigate the effect of social support on stress, and to clarify the effect and mechanism of Online Emotional Support Accompany Group (OESAG). Methods: The group members who signed up for the public welfare project "Psychological Rehabilitation Group Psychological Service under the COVID-19 Pandemic" were divided into the treatment group, the control group, and the blank group with 37 members each. The treatment group received OESAG intervention, the control group received online time management group intervention, and the blank group was the waiting group. The three groups of subjects were synchronously tested before and after the intervention group. Results: After the OESAG intervention, compared with the control group and the blank group, the treatment group showed that perceived social support was improved, and loneliness and stress were decreased. Conclusion: Improving social support can effectively reduce stress. OESAG can effectively improve social support and so too decrease stress. This study could help in designing effective psychological intervention measures to reduce the degree of stress symptoms and enhance both personal and social levels of coping with stressful events.

Students in out‐of‐home care: Their experiences of Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk, an Australian education programme

Children living in out‐of‐home care are at greater risk of poor educational outcomes compared to other children. To address their educational needs, several programs have been developed. Within a qualitative paradigm, this study explored the experiences of students about their involvement in TEACHaR (Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk), a specialized education programme. Eight students (aged 13 to 18 years) from the programme participated in individual, semi‐structured interviews. Responses were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Participants indicated that the programme provided individualized and flexible academic support, reduced their shame and embarrassment and provided them with more than academic support. They highlighted the importance of the student–educator relationship, and the need for encouragement and motivation to pursue their educational goals. Finally, findings report on how COVID‐19 impacts on student experiences of the programme. Recommendations for the development and improvement of education programs for students in out‐of‐home care conclude this paper.

A Sartrean analysis of pandemic shaming.

In this paper, we analyse the particular phenomena of COVID-19 pandemic shaming. We examine Sartre's account of the undifferentiated other in the experience of 'the look', and his insistence on shame as a foundational relational affect, in order to give a robust theoretical frame to understand how pandemic shaming circulated both online and offline, in targeted and diffuse manners. We focus on two features of pandemic shaming. First, we draw attention to the structural necessity of an audience in acts of pandemic shaming, where the shamer acts on behalf of a community of others, the audience, to perform and enforce a set of standards, values or norms. We turn to the we-experience and collective emotions literature and discuss how the shamer believes themselves to be 'speaking' on behalf of a community who share their outrage along with their values. Second, we discuss how the presumption of a collective emotion was frequently mistaken in acts of pandemic shaming, where shaming frequently led to shame backlashes, where the audience revealed themselves not to share the emotion and values of the shamer, consequently shaming the shamer. We argue that Jean-Paul Sartre's voyeur example is usefully illustrative of the tripartite structure of (1) shamed, (2) shamer and (3) shamer of the shamer that occurs in iterative processes of pandemic shaming, which are accompanied by shaming backlashes. We conclude by reflecting on the socio-historical context for Sartre's accounts of shame and 'the look', namely the German occupation of Paris and Sartre's experience of the French Resistance movement, and how these yield a particular socio-historical framing that makes evident how the extraordinary pseudo-wartime conditions of COVID-19 rendered atmospheres of distrust and suspicion prevalent.

The relationship between preventive actions against COVID-19 and behavioral standards: A study on the mediating nature of shame/embarrassment

In this study, the relationship between preventive behavior against COVID-19 and the behavioral standards of Japanese people was examined in order to determine whether or not shame/embarrassment mediates this relationship. A crowdsourced online survey was conducted in late May 2020 with 510 participants (mean age = 41.42, SD = 10.00, range = 20–81). Structural equation modeling indicated that peer standards suppressed both men's and women's general avoidance of the "three Cs”: closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings. In men, regional standards/care for others directly promoted preventive actions such as mask-wearing and disinfection, in addition to the three Cs avoidance. Furthermore, these preventive actions were promoted through shame/embarrassment. Alternatively, for women, while regional standards/care for others directly promoted preventive actions such as mask-wearing and disinfection, shame/embarrassment did not mediate the relationship between their action standards and preventive behaviors. The relationship between the behavioral standards and people's preventive behaviors against COVID-19, as well as the impact of shame/embarrassment on their preventive behavior, are discussed. © 2022 Japanese Psychological Association. All rights reserved.

"As if we are branded with the mark of Cain": stigma, guilt, and shame experienced by COVID-19 survivors in Israel - a qualitative study.

Stigma is associated with harmful health outcomes, and it fuels social and health inequalities. It can undermine social cohesion and encourage social exclusion of groups, which may contribute to secrecy about disease symptoms, avoidance of disease testing and vaccination, and further spread of a contagious illness. Stigmatization is a social process set to exclude those who are perceived to be a potential source of disease and may pose a threat to effective interpersonal and social relationships. In this qualitative study, we delved into the stigmatization experiences of twenty COVID-19 recovered patients during the COVID-19 first wave, using in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted during November 2020. Using thematic analysis, we found that the process of stigmatization was all-encompassing, from the stage of diagnosis throughout the duration of the disease and the recovery phases. On the basis of the data, we hypothesized that stigma is a significant public health concern, and effective and comprehensive interventions are needed to counteract the damaging and insidious effects during infectious disease pandemics such as COVID-19, and reduce infectious disease-related stigma. Interventions should address provision of emotional support frameworks for the victims of stigmatization and discrimination that accompany the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics. This study was conducted in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when uncertainty about the disease was high and fear of contamination fueled high levels of stigmatization against those who became ill with Covid-19.