The pandemic will end someday. The trauma will linger

[marmar]

The pandemic will end someday. The trauma will linger
Even after the pandemic has been contained, humanity will struggle to shed misinformation and cope with trauma

By MATTHEW ROZSA
JANUARY 20, 2021 11:59PM


(Salon) Ever since Pfizer and Moderna announced the development of successful COVID-19 vaccines, the end of the pandemic has been in sight. It has been a heinous ordeal — at the time of this writing, more than 2 million people have died worldwide of the disease, including more than 400,000 in the United States — and slow vaccine distribution means uncertainty still lies ahead.

Yet even if all goes well and we do manage to contain the pandemic in the near future, there will be lasting psychological consequences for the humans who suffered through it.

Intriguingly, not all of them will be negative, as Dr. Ellen Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, told Salon.

"The pandemic has made everybody concerned about their health. And I think that once the pandemic passes, that concern will continue, which is a good thing rather than a bad thing," Langer explained. She cited as an example how people might be more conscientious when they display flu-like symptoms.

....(snip)....

"This will take generations to get past," Dr. David Reiss, psychiatrist in private practice and expert in mental fitness evaluations, told Salon. "And that's because at every stage of development, things have been disrupted, whether you're talking about like my two-year-old grandchild who somehow has to understand seeing family members in masks, to four and five-year-old kids who are just starting to socialize, to adolescents who can't socialize and all through different stages of life." Reiss said as an adult in his sixties he felt deeply affected. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/20/the-pandemic-will-end-one-day-the-trauma-will-last/

[Initech]

1. I know that isolation is extremely traumatic.

I fucking hate it so badly. Even Harvard Magazine had a cover story about it. I am sure that mental health doctors have their work cut out for them in the next two years.

[a la izquierda]

3. I despise it.

I live alone in a foreign country and am slowly starting to hate everything I used to love. First went cooking. That was a shocker.

[Initech]

4. Yeah and to think that my new year's resolution last year was to learn to cook more.

Oh how I long to have someone wait on me at a restaurant again!

[a la izquierda]

5. Yeah.

I’ve been ordering a lot of takeaway. I cannot stand cooking for one.
I can’t wait until I can go to a pub.

[MissMillie]

2. Not just the trauma

There seems to be plenty of evidence that the virus does long-term (if not permanent) damage to the heart and lungs.

A lot of the "essential workers" who contracted the virus work in low-paying jobs that offer no health care benefits.

People are going to need AFFORDABLE access to medical care.