Wednesday, April 7, 2021

F is for Pandemic Fatigue

This year for the A-to-Z Challenge, I'll be looking at major events that happened in 2020 [the year we would all like to forget, so let's look at it first, before flushing it down the toilet].

Welcome to F!  We're looking at – PANDEMIC FATIGUE.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tired_brown_bear_050701.JPG

Are you tired of wearing a face mask and staying six feet apart from everyone?  Are you tired of working from home while also home-schooling your kids?  How can you possibly get everything done without help and/or more hours in the day?  You can't.

We're approximately on day 400 of “15 days to flatten the curve”.  Somewhere in those 400 days, the goalpost was moved from “flatten the curve” to “eliminate the curve”.  This is a good goal, but out of reach.  Humans simply can't live like this for more than a year.

Once it became apparent – back around I would say the four-month mark [end of July] – that masks and social distancing and closing the majority of businesses and most of society wasn't providing the desired solution, we should have moved to a different plan.  But we're still being told, 400 days later, that “we're all in this together” and to “just hold on for a few more weeks” and the nauseating “we can do this”.

No, we can't.  Lives and livelihoods have been destroyed.  Our physical health is suffering.  Our mental health is suffering.  Recent reports state that more people are dying from inactivity and from suicide than from COVID.  Despite trying their best to do schoolwork from a screen, most kids have lost an entire year of learning.

We need to change what we're doing.  It isn't working.  I will gladly continue to wear a mask, wash my hands until they're raw, and stay six feet apart from everyone IF BUSINESSES AND SOCIETY ARE OPEN.  Give us back what's left of our mental health, our physical health, our lives and livelihoods.  Treat us like adults and let us decide for ourselves how to act.  That's what freedom means.

Here are two good links about pandemic fatigue

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-we-can-deal-with-pandemic-fatigue/

https://www.everydayhealth.com/coronavirus/how-to-not-let-pandemic-fatigue-turn-into-pandemic-burnout/

What do you think?  Let us know in the comments.

Here's a teaser for tomorrow, letter G:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg,_SCOTUS_photo_portrait.jpg




14 comments:

  1. Hi, I just found you A to Z posts. I'm doing the A-Z as well and my topic is related to 2020. One of my topics today is fatigue (I have more than one word or phrase per letter). I sure felt that a lot.

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    1. I think we're all pretty fatigued by now. Glad you found something fatiguing to write about too!

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  2. Yeah, I am done with it. Got my first shot, Traveling to see my elderly mother next month. Remote working at least until year's end and more likely forever.

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    1. Remote working forever sounds very interesting. And glad you can see your mother now!

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  3. Oh, your F is not fur ;)) Fatigue, yes... We are in our third lockdow here in France.
    Ruth! I loved her!
    Quilting Patchwork & Appliqué

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    1. Third lockdown??!! Ugh. Hope it ends soon for you.

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  4. The pain of the struggle is real for those without jobs, with children to home school and mortgages to pay. Fatigue is definitely an apt description of experiencing the past year.
    https://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com/
    F is for Fractured Fairy Tales

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  5. I didn't think it would bother me that much since I'm an introvert mostly and work from home but even I am missing seeing someone other than my family.
    Janet’s Smiles

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    1. I worked from home for only one month and, even tho I was able to see my colleagues over Zoom, it was nice to get back to the office.

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  6. All of us have some for of the fatigue. For some it borders on PTSD, those whose budgets were working on a weekly basis have gotten the worst of it.

    I can understand those high school seniors and college students who had their world changed. Those things, though, will fade; a year of food insecurity will not.

    It would have been more meaningful if those students had done something to help their community cope, instead of trying to back-fill a fairy existence by doing spring break.

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    1. Those spring break photos from Florida were Yikes!

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  7. Such a different story here. But I don't think it matters the situation, we all want to go back to life pre-pandemic.

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