Impact of COVID on Translation

Where we used to ask each other, "How’s your day going or how are you?" Now, we ask, "How are you coping with all of this pandemic stuff?" And variations thereof.
 
I’d like to put on the hat of medical science translator and answer that question.

​In early March, clinical trials dropped everything to reassess how to go forward. The medical world put a halt to many pursuits and turned to confront this mystery, this novel virus. Consequently, my work load dropped considerably, hitting me hard in the first months. Since then, work has been humming along at a speed I’d compare to driving in first gear down a gravel county road.

The work is there still. There are always SAE reports that need to be translated and the occasional scientific article. It’s just that the volume is much lower, so my work is spread out across every day of the week, a few hours a day. Gone are the tight deadlines and working my brain into mush for 8 hours at a stretch. As a result, my income has suffered, barely covering my bills.

​That being said, research is a cornerstone of the modern world. So, I am positive that, at some point, the medical world will pick up speed again and generate an increasing number of  documents that need translation. For now, let’s relax into our seats and keep riding this out in order to get through with as few bumps and bruises as possible. There’s not much else we can do. This is history in the making.