We are several months into shifting around our workplaces, habits, hobbies, and lives to accommodate for everyone’s health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Needless to say, this is business as unusual, but it’s going to be our new normal for the foreseeable future. Although we’ve spent over half of the year adjusting to new guidelines and procedures, you still might be feeling burnt out both on and off the clock—and that’s okay.
It is absolutely draining, both mentally and physically, to be constantly isolating yourself from your entire social circle. Since the stay at home orders first started popping up in March, we’ve been essentially cut off from our normal routines cold-turkey, and despite careful measures taken to slowly open back up, it’s becoming clear that our “normal routines” aren’t coming back (or at least, not this year). We’ve heard from employers, government officials, and even our own loved ones that these are challenging and uncertain times, seemingly on a loop. And while these are all well-meaning statements, the only thing we’re thinking is, “well, duh, we know—when’s it going to end?”
And maybe you’ve felt a twinge of guilt for thinking that, for feeling angry or unnerved wondering about the end to the pandemic, since we’ve all had several months to hunker down and adjust. True, physical health is on the line, but there’s no denying that there’s also been a trend of letting mental health fall to the wayside amidst the COVID craziness. But it’s okay to be frustrated, because, as we all know by now, this is unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. And to be honest, it’s hard to sign on to changing and even severely restricting the way we live our lives when we don’t know when it’s going to end.
But that’s just it: although we can’t pinpoint an end date, we can find comfort in the fact that there will be an end date. This is not the first pandemic to ever hit humankind, and it likely won’t be the last (though hopefully we don’t see another one in our lifetimes!). We are more medically and technologically advanced than ever before. There’s no denying that COVID-19 is an incredibly exhausting and even traumatic historical event to go through, but it will not go on forever.
Surely, you’ve seen your fair share of doom and gloom over the pandemic, and chances are high that the negatives you’ve read up on have far outweighed the positives. Constantly consuming the stuff that scares us, while in some ways can be helpful or informative, will inevitably cause our mental health to take a nosedive along the way. True, we shouldn’t ignore the disastrous effects of COVID altogether, but we shouldn’t dismiss the light at the end of the tunnel when we see it, either. So, if you’re needing something to lift your spirits, here are some positive things to think about in regards to the end of the pandemic:
- Various vaccine candidates are currently in development and projected to be available by early to mid-2021.
- A vaccine developed by Oxford University has stopped 70% of people developing COVID symptoms according to a large-scale trial and could potentially increase protection by up to 90% if the dosage is perfected, as suggested by data.
- Moderna and Pfizer have also been developing vaccines that so far are proving to be over 90% effective.
Of course, all of this is speculative, but if the development rate of vaccines has anything to say about it, the end of the COVID pandemic just may be sooner than we think. A huge part of responsibility also falls on us to continue doing our part to slow the spread, even though it means temporary lifestyle changes that may not be convenient. It hasn’t been easy, but if we can just hang tight for a little while longer to keep our communities and loved ones safe, then the world might be able to open back up before we know it.
