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- White House health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci has a 3-word message for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the daily coronavirus update.
- ‘Don’t give up’ is what Dr Fauci said he wanted people to take away from a recent interview he had with The Washington Post on the latest developments related to the coronavirus pandemic.
- The coronavirus has produced a number of mental health effects as the pandemic has persisted for more than six months in the United States now.
For months, it’s been so easy to stay addicted to the regular gout of coronavirus updates and other daily pandemic headlines – including everything from the terrible death toll (over 170,000 and not counting) than in the United States) to the inexorable rise in the number of new cases in the country. One of the reasons it’s so difficult to get away from the daily cycle of coronavirus news is because of the very real impact it has on everyday life where you live. Turn off the news for a day, for example, and you might miss something, from the word of a restaurant you loved being forced to close, to a new way your community is responding to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, there are hidden effects to having our lives so controlled by this virus over the past six months – effects that public health officials probably don’t talk about enough. White House health adviser Dr Anthony Fauci touched on this topic in a new interview (offering a simple but powerful three-word encouragement: “Don’t give up”), as did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. from the United States in a study published late last week. Developed from a survey of more than 5,400 Americans, the study found that “40.9% of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral problem.”
The results indicate that 31% of respondents admitted to suffering symptoms of anxiety or depression, while 26% reported symptoms of trauma and stress related to the pandemic. More worryingly, just over 13% of respondents had started using substances like alcohol to cope with the stress and emotions associated with the pandemic, while almost 11% had seriously considered suicide in the past. 30 days previous.
“From June 24 to 30, 2020,” the study notes, “American adults reported significantly elevated adverse mental health issues associated with COVID-19. Young adults, racial / ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers have reported experiencing disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use, and elevated suicidal ideation.
Perhaps these are the kinds of tragic side effects Dr Fauci had in mind when he sat down for an interview with The Washington Post reporter Geoff Edgers. As always, these types of interviews with Dr Fauci do all kinds of information, with one of the headlines of this having to do with Dr Fauci’s comment to Edgers that Fox News Personality Tucker Carlson is adept at triggering “some of the crazies in society to start threatening me.”
Meanwhile, Dr Fauci also turned his attention in this interview to the stress and hopelessness that people are feeling right now as we all face the effects of the pandemic that stem from the actions of other people with whom we do not. ‘had nothing to do with and that we can’t control – such as the inability of national leaders to contain and firmly fight the virus.
Even so, “it will end,” Fauci assured Edgers. “I mean, when you’re in something so stressful you have to worry about the hopelessness setting in, like, ‘My God, I’m in dire straits.’ It’s not, it’s going to end. We will get out of it and get back to normal. So this is really one of those situations – don’t give up. Don’t despair, don’t throw caution to the wind. We can end this … with public health measures and scientific advancements in vaccines, therapies and prevention measures, I guarantee that.
Andy is a reporter in Memphis who also contributes to media outlets like Fast Company and The Guardian. When not writing about tech, he’s found leaning protectively over his budding vinyl collection, as well as his Whovianism and a variety of TV shows you probably don’t like.
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