Thread:

I am a lecturer. I am also 5.5 months pregnant, 38, and asthmatic. Your immunity lowers when you’re pregnant (so body doesn’t attack baby) which means you’re more vulnerable to illness. In “normal” times I frequently get ill during term time 1/?

(which I generally work through): everyone who works on a campus knows they are viral hotspots.

As your pregnancy continues, your lungs gradually get smooshed up as your womb expands, making you easily breathless. When pregnant with my 1st child, my asthma got a lot worse 2/?

Getting a bad respiratory tract infection terrifies me. Despite the fact I appreciate the outcomes for both me and my unborn baby would likely be ok even if I did get COVID, I am also nevertheless scared of dying and leaving my young son. 3/?

My own mum died when I was 7 and my little sister was 2. The impact that had on our wellbeing and mental health continues to this day. I do not want my son to have to experience that. 4/?

And yet everyday on twitter I have to read all this crap about how I am a selfish snowflake hysteric for not travelling 1 hour on public transport every day to give my students f2f (instead of the meticulously planned online course I spent all summer designing for them 5/?

which I’ve already had some lovely feedback on - thank you students you’ve all been awesome and it’s a pleasure to teach you!). Apparently I’m not giving them value for money; I don’t care about *their* mental health. 6/7

And this makes me a shitty, lazy person who doesn’t deserve to keep their job. I’m fed up of it tbh. It’s extremely upsetting and extremely wearing. 7/7 #AcademicTwitter #onlinelearning

FYI some of the most recent responses to the president of my union @ucu talking on the news is the exact kind of crap I’m talking about