What to do about pandemic fatigue?
Valerie Deloney, MBA
Kavita K. Trivedi, MD
The past ten months have been a barrage of advice about what we should or should not do to protect ourselves and our communities from SARS-CoV-2.
Distill it down to what we can do individually, today, and four simple, evidence-based practices emerge: wearing face coverings, physically distancing while avoiding enclosed spaces, staying home when sick or exposed, and keeping our hands clean.
By now, we do the last three of them reasonably well. But face coverings are our Achilles heel. Meanwhile, studies suggest that when more than 80% of members of a community consistently wear face coverings in public, it is even more effective than lockdowns.
Many of us have pandemic fatigue after months of restrictions. Let’s try to work through some of the reasons we avoid face coverings to overcome our resistance to them, cut transmission, and start to resume the activities and interactions we miss so much.
- They’re uncomfortable.
After repeated uses, our bodies stop noticing face coverings, like when we get used to wearing a watch, glasses, gloves, or a bike helmet. But, when we’re inconsistent about wearing face coverings, or when we fidget with them or wear them incorrectly, we undermine the ability for our bodies to get used to them.
2. They’re not totally effective.
Numerous case studies from airplanes, hair salons, and gatherings demonstrate that people who wear face coverings are protected from symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers. If worn properly, they work.
3. I know these people.
When we’re among those in our households, as long as no one is infected with COVID-19, we are in our “bubble” and can interact in pre-pandemic ways. A “bubble” is a group of people who, because they live together, share a microbial environment.
Think of growing your “bubble” like you’re proposing pandemic marriage. It is a commitment. Are you ready to share your microbial life, for better or worse, with your co-worker? Your neighbor? A close friend? A bubble offers safe exemption from pandemic precautions, but only if it fits this definition of exclusivity. Otherwise, the four simple practices still apply.
4. Wearing a face covering makes me feel self-conscious.
Face coverings have become politicized, meaning some people are making a statement by not wearing them, or trying not to make a statement, also by not wearing them. We can excise the politics with simple participation. Social pressure gently turns new activities into norms and we hasten the tipping point by leading by example.
Choice helps too. You don’t have to put on the same style of face covering every time. The best face covering is one you’ll wear. Represent you, but cover your nose and your mouth. We applaud the designers who are offering clothes with coordinating face coverings to help make them a social norm.
5. Face coverings weren’t recommended at first.
SARS-CoV-2 is a highly-contagious virus. None of us had existing immunity. When it was brand new, the scientific community started from what it understood of similar viruses — SARS, MERS, influenza, and other coronaviruses. We did not need the public to use face coverings to control them.
Because there are no tiny Go-Pros on each virus giving researchers moment-by-moment views of how it spreads, we have had front row seats to the twists and turns of real-time science. In April, accumulated evidence showed that a large portion of people were spreading SARS-CoV-2 while asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, or unusually symptomatic. At that point, CDC recommended face coverings for the public in order to control the pandemic and has never turned back. Let’s keep looking forward.
6. What about [testing, vaccines, therapeutics]?
These scientific and public health interventions will help bring about an end to the pandemic, but none are “one-shot” solutions. Tests are not prevention strategies on their own. None of them are sensitive enough, yet, to assure that a negative test means we can interact without precautions. The recent news of the leading vaccines’ Phase 3 trials is thrilling, but for various reasons we’re at least a year from enjoying herd immunity. Face coverings will be present in our lives for a while. And in terms of therapeutics, the old adage applies — “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
7. …or [the economy, small businesses, schools, holidays]?
We agree, 100%. These put food on the table, bolster health and happiness, and help us thrive. Face coverings and physical distancing protect them. We fully believe if organizations (from mom-and-pop shops to large institutions to community services) embrace these four simple strategies, most can re-open and thrive, albeit appearing different from pre-pandemic business as usual.
8. …or [the risk of oxygen deprivation, or the benefits of vitamins, salt lamps, oils]?
CDC and other public health groups recommend breathable cloth coverings and other styles that do not to cause oxygen deprivation. Air molecules get through, but the virus is too big. It is true that a small number of people cannot wear face coverings for medical reasons or because they’re under age 2. If you’re not among them, it rests on your shoulders to wear your face covering to help stop transmission in your community.
If salt lamps or other self-treatments are your thing, go for it, but remember they do not, in any way, supplant wearing face coverings, physically distancing, staying home when sick or exposed, and keeping your hands clean.
Advising many businesses and organizations through the pandemic, we have been humbled by how the face covering, a low-burden intervention, can protect the wearer and people around them. An individual choice that can have community-wide impacts. What better way to show you are thankful for your community this holiday season?
