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  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | National Institutes of Health

Behind the Mask:  Real Stories from NIH Employees and Contractors during the COVID-19 Pandemic

About

Since January of 2020, NIH has been on the forefront of researching, combating, and providing information about COVID-19. For most of us, the virus has impacted how we are able to perform our jobs. The NIH Office of History and Stetten Museum is launching a campus-wide initiative to encourage NIH government employees, contractors, and volunteers to submit documentation about their professional and personal experiences during the COVID-19 outbreak. While official records will be preserved according to federal regulations, there are no such provisions in place to ensure that personal reactions will be captured that give a more collective account about NIH and its response to the virus. Your contribution will be the primary source material future historians will use to understand how NIH fared and adapted at this critical time.

How to Participate

COVID-19 has affected each of us at NIH in many ways from being part of the race to discover therapeutics and vaccines, to caring for patients in the Clinical Center, to re-configuring work protocols, to dealing with our changed professional and personal routines, to grappling with our emotions. Here are some suggestions of topics you can discuss:

  • Working on campus during the pandemic
  • Teleworking or being furloughed during the pandemic
  • How COVID-19 has affected your personal interactions with co-workers
  • Opportunities that have emerged due to COVID-19
  • Particular aspects of your work that you miss
  • How your training and career have been affected
  • How you feel the NIH has responded overall to the crisis

Your perspective on how COVID-19 is unique and can be communicated in whatever mediums and formats you feel fitting to express your experience. Some ideas include but are not limited to:

  • Video
  • Audio recordings
  • Photography
  • Journal entries
  • Poetry
  • Prose
  • Artwork
  • Social media posts
  • Spreadsheets
  • Websites/Blogs

Submit Your Story

  1. Share your reflections about your experience with COVID-19. Answer as many or as few questions as you would like. Be sure to read the permission agreements at the end of the form.
  2. Fill out our online form to upload your digital files. Please read the permissions agreement at the end of the form. Your consent allows us to use your materials online, in exhibits, and in publications as well as add them to our collection. If others collaborate with you on creating materials, they should demonstrate their consent by filling out the online form with the title of the resource. Only one person needs to submit the file.

Note: The Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum needs written permission from anyone that appears in a photograph, video, audio recording, website page, or social media post to fully display the content on our website, in publications, and in physical and digital exhibits. If children appear in photographs or videos, their legal guardians must submit their approval for these files to be used by the Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum.

Donate Non-Digital Materials

  1. Fill out and print out our Deed of Gift form (link to deed of gift form pdf). This gives us the permission to use your materials online, in exhibits, and in publications as well as add them to our collection.
  2. If you have physical items or papers that capture your experience with contending with COVID-19, either mail or deliver in-person materials to the Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum once we re-open at:

Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum

Attn: Gabrielle Barr

Building 60| Suite 230

National Institutes of Health

Bethesda, Maryland 20814-1460

Terms & Conditions Concerning the Submission Process

Please try to avoid including personal health information in your submissions for the privacy rights of those involved. Records that contain personal health information would not be able to be fully shared with the public until 75 years after that individual’s death.

No one submission item can exceed XXX. If your file is too large, check the box on the form that notifies the Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum to send you a link for file transfer.

You may attach multiple items per form and have the ability to send materials as many times as you wish.

Submissions will not be available immediately for public viewing. After they are processed, they will be accessible on the Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum website or onsite.

The Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum has the right to reject any submission or component of a submission that it considers duplicative, inappropriate, or outside the scope of the project. 

Contact for More Information

Check out our FAQ page (would link to a FAQ page) for further information. If you have questions about how your submission would fit into our repository or need technical assistance, please reach out to history@nih.gov.
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