| The threat the COVID-19 pandemic presents to chronically-ill individuals is multiplex: economic precarity, bodily risk, and biopolitical violence endanger wellbeing. Using multimodal data gathered from a series of semi-structured interviews, this research explores the various modes of livelihood labor enacted by the chronically-ill in the intermountain US during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results demonstrate increased socio-economic pressures due to the fiscal expenses of chronic illness management and the pandemic’s impact on the economy. However, chronic labor extended well beyond the market: increased vulnerability engendered social labor through ‘mental contact-tracing’ and the hyper-regulation of social and clinical landscapes. More, chronically-ill participants were forced to politicize their own livelihoods in response to the institutional disregard for chronic illness within pandemic policy. Imagining chronic labor beyond the body allows for a richer understanding of the chronic experience, for which centralized research is needed. Moreover, the liminality that exists as we transition into the ‘post-pandemic’ provides an opportunity to reflect on disproportionate risk. While many have progressed past the pandemic into socioeconomic renewal, biological, socio-political, and economic inequity continue to threaten the lives of vulnerable populations. |