Back to Work We Go

How many of you were lucky enough to work from home throughout the majority of the pandemic? My place of employment at first let us work from home, 5 days a week. Then it slowly increased to more days into the office.

Currently, I am no longer working from home which means back to 5 days a week in the office. The one thing that does still makes me nervous is the fact that we are still in a pandemic.

One part of me wishes I still was able to work from home, but another part of me realizes that we need to not let the pandemic take over and to continue pushing HIV education and prevention.

Limited community access to services

It occurred to me that just because we are in a pandemic, it does not mean that people aren’t having sex. We know that social distancing is encouraged, but we live in a world where people do not want to be restricted or told that they cannot do something.

When organizations that provided the community with things like free condoms were shut down or had fewer hours, it was harder for individuals to access them.

Many people that I know and who are a part of my community rely on these organizations to access free testing as well as get condoms and lube because they cannot always afford it themselves.

Hosting in-person sex education workshops

During the pandemic, I facilitated workshops via Zoom where I would educate men who have sex with men about things like HIV, STIs, PrEP, PEP, and condom negotiation. One thing that I am very excited about with being back in the office is that I can now host these groups in person.

Maintaing county COVID-19 guidelines

We limit these groups to about 5 to 6 individuals now and practice social distancing to maintain with county guidelines. What I do appreciate is how open and willing individuals are to come back to an in-person group setting post-pandemic.

As I said, I know COVID-19 is still around, but to see human interaction again really brings joy to my heart, especially when the dialogue is about community support and someone’s HIV diagnosis journey.

I am a very social individual, so being able to have discussions in-person again makes me very happy. I now have the ability to better read people's body language if they are uncomfortable with a certain topic that we are discussing.

Continuing HIV awareness and education efforts

Now that I am back in the office, I am seeing an increase in community members coming in to pick up condoms and lube. I can now supply condoms to different venues like barbershops, bathhouses, and local health clinics again as I use to before the pandemic.

I have come to realize that even though we are still in a pandemic, the HIV epidemic is still not over. I must continue to push forward, raise awareness, and share my journey along the way.

Whether I work from home or in the office, I will continue in the fight to end HIV stigma.