I live in a part of the world that has stamped out the virus, and it has taken a while to fade the anxieties surrounding crowds and public amenities and such that I built up during the middle of it. It's a combination of so many things, but I have somewhat crested the hill and feel comfortable in public spaces again. It's obviously not over yet, we're not inoculated and it could get re-introduced. But I can be pretty confident with the situation right now.
The biggest issue is just the factor of the unknown. It was never clear what's right, what's overreacting, what's underreacting, am I doing too much am I doing too little? Someone sniffs down the hall and your imagination goes wild...
But we know so much more about it, and what protections are in place, that a lot of that anxiety of the unknown is gone. I have personally learned about myself, what my comfortable levels of risk are, and I have seen how my country responds to outbreaks and it has filled me with great confidence.
To everyone still amidst the pandemic, know that you're carrying some extra cognitive load even if you're being totally reasonable about everything. So don't feel bad if you're feeling worn out, and I hope we'll all be on the end of it soon enough.
If it goes on for another year or two (pls don't kill the messenger, remember last Feb-March and how we just had to flatten the curve for some weeks or a month, vaccines will take way longer than the media pushes) it will also significantly impact small children and their assessment of how the world works, social norms, dangers of strangers, masks covering expressive faces, less contact to extended family etc.
I'll be curious to see how the effect on kids plays out. Are there kids who are better off with distance learning because it got them away from schoolyard bullies? Will most kids now be more understanding of other kids who were isolates before, knowing now what isolation feels like? How will this affect the fads of the 2030s as these kids come of age?
The biggest issue is just the factor of the unknown. It was never clear what's right, what's overreacting, what's underreacting, am I doing too much am I doing too little? Someone sniffs down the hall and your imagination goes wild...
But we know so much more about it, and what protections are in place, that a lot of that anxiety of the unknown is gone. I have personally learned about myself, what my comfortable levels of risk are, and I have seen how my country responds to outbreaks and it has filled me with great confidence.
To everyone still amidst the pandemic, know that you're carrying some extra cognitive load even if you're being totally reasonable about everything. So don't feel bad if you're feeling worn out, and I hope we'll all be on the end of it soon enough.