OUR VIEW
As we move a little more into the calendar year, with larger numbers for the worldwide pandemic, mental health remains a worry.
We’ve written about the tie between the two before. Rare it will be to find anyone not fatigued by COVID-19, not from having the infection so much as how dealing with it envelopes our lives.
Sides were drawn long ago for face coverings or not, mandates, government reach or overreach. Name it, and it was in the crosshairs of sides defined by political party, health officials, or just the average Joe believing he knows what is best.
Recent polls of varying types reflect changing attitudes. A year ago, it was the top priority. Today, it seems to be something we live with while the economy and personal finances are No. 1.
Granted, there is a tie between the two. But in an open-ended question for a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, safe to say “it’s the economy, stupid” has reclaimed top spot.
When the Supreme Court last week struck down a federal mask mandate, workers across the country took the news in varied ways. Especially those without an option to work remotely.
Korn Ferry, a workforce consulting firm, says in a recent polling that 27 percent of workers — if mandated to go back into their offices — will refuse to do so, even part-time. Sixth-four percent would be “happy” to socialize with co-workers again, but 51 percent said it would have a negative impact on their mental health. That’s alarming.
The pandemic, whether we believe it’s a matter of living with it or giving effort day and night to avoid it, is hammering the American psyche.
“Seemingly every day we think we finally have stability, and then we don’t,” said Dan Kaplan of Korn Ferry. “Back-to-the-office is caught in the middle of that.”
And not alone.
Bladen County Board of Education members were a 5-4 split on deciding to put everyone who goes into one of their facilities in face coverings. That was no surprise, given the uneven response of parents and guardians.
Research released last week through the Kaiser Family Foundation says vaccination in children ages 5 to 11 has stalled. Nationally less than 1 in 5 have both doses of the vaccine, and only 27 percent have gotten at least one shot.
Simply put, not everyone is buying into all the “science and data” being spewed forth, whether it be from an organization such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or a politician with no medical background at all. Vaccination was supposed to be the big difference. Now it’s a booster. Maybe another after that.
It doesn’t help the CDC that its longtime definition of vaccine used to include “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.” Now it’s “A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases,” removing the part that added “to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from that disease.”
Mental health has a lot to do with safety and comfort. Our finances, our workplaces, the rules being laid upon us — it has been adding up. And we’re feeling it.
Stability is needed. And like so many things today, there is short supply.