'Less sensationalised; more balanced': why we need a level-headed approach to Covid
Steven Taylor from The Guardian wrote an article considering how the current generation will cope with the lingering effects of Covid-19 once the pandemic has passed called For the generation shaped by coronavirus, life may never fully return to ‘normal'.
As the focus gradually shifts from the loss of lives to that of livelihoods, we can expect to hear more about the longer-term effects of the crisis brought about by the coronavirus. Not surprisingly, in the interim we can expect to hear considerably more opinions on the more immediate impact of this crisis. Anxiety levels are running high around the world as billions of people have their lives disrupted in ways they would never have conceived when a new decade dawned only months before.
Key points:
- Psychologist Gordon Asmundson conducted research that evaluated levels of fear and anxiety across approximately 7,000 adults from Canada and the US. While 75% of respondents appeared to be coping, 25% developed what has been termed Covid stress syndrome.
- Amongst those assessed their fears about becoming infected along with the worry about the broader social and economic impacts of Covid-19.
- It is estimated that 10% of those affected by traumatic events go on to develop severe psychological problems such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Over the past two months people have become more accustomed with working from home, doing meetings with Zoom and ordering groceries through Amazon. This is the first global pandemic of the digital age. The internet has made it possible to withdraw from the outside world.
- In addition to the long-lasting impact of anxiety, it is also expected that the number of germophobes is also on the rise. The trauma of refraining from touching surfaces for fear of infection is bringing out obsessive-compulsive disorders amongst people who prior to Covid-19 were unlikely to give such matters much attention.
With an event such as Covid-19 we need factual information to inform a more level-headed approach to predictive behaviour once the pandemic has moved on.
Less sensationalised; more balanced. Steven Taylor’s well-documented research provides just that.
With so many of us having to shift from our offices to our homes, with very little warning, we’re now going through one of the greatest social experiments that this generation has ever witnessed. How this change will impact us in the long term is anyone’s guess. Higher levels of anxiety are a logical outcome.
For the goldilocks economy that has escaped the clutch of a recession for the last 27 years, the impact of the current economic crisis is likely to have a pronounced impact on those Australians 35 and under. Unemployment has been low, and for the majority, jobs have not been hard to come by. With predictions of unemployment levels above 10%, Australians have seen the labour market swing massively in a profoundly short period of time.
How will this impact us in the longer term?
The next three to four weeks is pivotal. If the National Cabinet can relax restrictions whilst also flattening the curve, then we could be back working in the office again soon. The impact this will have on the nation’s psyche should not be under-estimated. The flow-on effects on business confidence and consumer sentiment would also be positive.
By contrast, if Australia goes the way of Singapore or Germany and goes back into lockdown, that will unleash a new wave of uncertainty amongst those who were just becoming accustomed to a more normal life.
The predictions about what life will be like once the coronavirus has past will continue to come thick and fast as different countries plot a course through it. No doubt the angst regarding life on the other side of the virus will also remain due to the vast levels of uncertainty this pandemic has caused.
The only prediction I will make about life after Covid-19 is this: Most of us will feel more grateful for what we have. The extent of this virus is at a scale not encountered before and will bring about higher levels of reflection. As the crisis lessens and lives return to normal, more people will take stock of what they have and experience a higher sense of gratitude.
