pandemic fatigue

The swank home exercise brand Peloton© has been hit by popular-culture backlash to do with “consumers’ resentment of anything related to the pandemic era and its restrictions, no matter how much something may have been appreciated at the time.”[1] A paradox: an innovation meant to ameliorate Covid-related health issues has itself become infected.

The condition popularly named pandemic fatigue (also pandemic brain, quarantine fatigue, and Covid burnout) broadly refers to a set of symptoms that involve difficulties concentrating, lapses of attention, and lapses in memory.[2] As we now know, health care workers are especially affected by covid-related stressors. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified them as a group —

“at particular risk of developing … physical/mental problems as a result of [being] exposed to the threat of transmission because of their frontline work with patients with high viral loads. Suboptimal personal protection equipment, severe stress, high emotional load, long working hours, concerns of being infected or infecting their relatives, lack of adequate support in the working environment and lack of effective supportive treatments can affect [their] physical and emotional well-being.”

Another paradox: the very people dedicated to alleviating Covic-related conditions are themselves in need of urgent care. I asked a nurse-friend how she’s coping with pandemic fatigue. Her reply (paraphrased) reads as if a gigantic pipe is leaking and could burst at any time —

“Pandemic fatigue, you ask? Huge sigh. Work is constantly short staffed, several refuse to work the covid floors, supplies pile up as no one has time or energy to unpack, messes everywhere that people should clean up but don’t, double-gowning-and-double-masking before entering each covid room, infected patients with dementia ‘escaping’ from isolation, meandering in and out of others’ rooms, spreading the virus while resisting ‘capture’ and escort back to their own rooms, patients dying a little faster than usual, amended regulations (provincial and internal) coming down the pipeline every other day . . . non-stop for 2 years, with no end in sight. Last night I barely had time to pee or eat between trying to get everything done.”

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[1] Gus Carlson, The Globe and Mail, Jan 29, 2022, B2  [2] Karl Szpunar, Ryerson University, CTV News, Dec 19, 2021  [3] Salazar de Pablo, G., et al. (2020). Impact of coronavirus syndromes on physical and mental health of health care workers. Journal of affective disorders, 275, 48–57. doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.022  image: Getty Images