During COVID, many of us continued to write research papers. Others wrote autoethnographies about topics like being a "COVID survivor."
Abstract: "This paper provides my personal experience as a COVID-19 survivor during and postrecovery periods. The stigma that my children and I underwent exposed us to the fragility of a social system that we struggle with all through our life to remain a part of. My story revealed a strong symbiotic relationship between the disease (COVID-19) and the patient's low acceptance in society, primarily attributed to misinformation and xenophobia around the COVID-19. This autoethnography speaks for several other COVID survivors who met with the same fate of being discriminated against and stigmatized. As a COVID patient and survivor, the traumatic experience was creating a fear psychosis in me, the effect of which I presume will stay beyond COVID-19. This condition of a syndemic seems to linger and negatively affect my outlook toward society. If COVID survivors develop a syndemic condition in a pandemic situation, it will require significant efforts to reserve it or sometimes even become irreversible."
Increased numbers of academics are writing autoethnographies because autoethnographies are easier to complete and get through peer review than actual research (e.g., laboratory experiments, questionnaire studies).