COVID fatigue is setting in – Colorado Springs Gazette
If anyone had told us that we would be combating COVID almost two years after its onset, no one would have believed them. Many of us remember the two-week shutdown of businesses and workplaces across the country in March 2020 to stop the spread of the virus. At that time, the impression was that once we did this, we could bring the virus under control, and we could go back to life as we knew it.
Many liken our fight against COVID as a war. If this though…….
If anyone had told us that we would be combating COVID almost two years after its onset, no one would have believed them. Many of us remember the two-week shutdown of businesses and workplaces across the country in March 2020 to stop the spread of the virus. At that time, the impression was that once we did this, we could bring the virus under control, and we could go back to life as we knew it.
Many liken our fight against COVID as a war. If this though were a true war and we had the level of casualties and deaths as in this one (now exceeding the number of those lost in the entire Civil War), there would be a public outcry. Instead, we’ve become numb and sadly unmoved by the weekly COVID statistics of deaths, hospitalizations, and overall cases.
Those numbers no longer register with us as being real people with families and friends but rather a cold data point on a chart.
One can chalk this up to COVID fatigue. For many the pandemic seems unending. One variant of the virus begins to fade with another rapidly replacing it.
We’ve become confused as to when the latest surge began or when it may end and in turn which guidance or restrictions may apply.
Many have resigned themselves to the uncertainty that the pandemic has created. We are cautious in our planning of events or travel, lest those plans may be canceled due to a surge in cases. We’ve become tired and frustrated being controlled by this unwanted guest in our lives who greatly shapes how we live and what we can do.
For some this frustration has turned to anger over the latest health orders, while for others there is a sense of weariness and resignation as the pandemic continues.
A major contributing factor to the public’s frustration has been the inability to know where we are in this fight and how much longer the pandemic may go on. For that matter no one is even certain what victory may look like. Will it be an annual vaccination or multiple boosters over the year?
COVID fatigue has shaken the public’s confidence in our elected officials and health professionals who have been leading the fight on a national, state, and local basis. This deterioration in faith in those leaders to a large extent may be attributed to the ongoing changing guidelines, the on again/off again restrictions and mandates, and somewhat confusing proclamations, findings, and statements.
While it may be easy to blame those individuals, we need to understand that they, too, have been learning about COVID as this pandemic has evolved.
To a large extent our disappointment …….
