“We have had enough! We need this to be over.” Sound at all familiar? Like many others I am confessing to compliance fatigue. I call it the point at which many of the precautionary measures to prevent COVID-19 spread are starting to feel too much to sustain. It is the psychological place we reach where mental health supersedes the need to combat physical illness. CTV news reported the following “If you have found you’re no longer disinfecting your hands as often or becoming more lenient toward unnecessary trips outside, you’re not alone. The unintentional phenomenon is ‘caution fatigue’ . Dangerous? Yes! Surprising? No!
I began writing this blog four months ago just after the Corona pandemic insisted Canadians return home and self isolate and most of the rest of the world began to shut down. Complying with the two week isolation mandated by our Canadian government, my husband and I busied ourselves with ordering groceries online, resurrecting decades old recipes, playing cribbage during happy hour, researching how to make home made face masks and thoroughly sanitizing every grocery item and delivery box that entered our home. We stayed away from family and friends while looking forward to renewed socialization after our two week isolation would end. Turns out that the assumption of a light at the end of the quarantine tunnel was wishful thinking. The pandemic continued to wreck havoc with our daily routines.
The Covid crisis has painfully demonstrated the challenges of handling a global dilemma with implications that kept emerging week after week. At first we were told not to wear masks as they were not helpful in resisting the disease. As more research came to light there was a 180 on masks. In the first weeks of the Covid lockdown we were given to understand that seniors were the most vulnerable to Covid. Younger people were almost immune. That is now contradicted by the number of cases sustained by the under 40 crowd. There was a claim that the virus did not spread as easily in heat so there was a belief that the hot summer would stem the spread. Yet in Arizona where the temperature reached into the +110F , the virus numbers increased. Hard to know how to comply when the compliance directives keep changing.
Now into this fourth month of dealing with the global pandemic many countries, including Canada, have opened up business activity. Canadians are ok’d to socialize within our cohort bubble and most provinces are moving to reopening schools. These are major initiatives that seem to promise a move to what looks and acts like normalcy.
Other social norms have been abandoned with some innovative replacements. Shaking hands has evolved into elbow bumps, bowing and “nameste” gestures. So far none of these seem to have taken hold as generally accepted etiquette. Lockdown weary people may still be hopeful that traditional handshake greetings and air kisses will make a comeback.
Ask almost any parent about the most difficult social change brought on by the pandemic and you would likely hear “homeschooling.” And if you don’t think there was compliance fatigue with being both teacher and parent then you would be sadly mistaken. The promise of school safely reopening will certainly help alleviate exhaustion a with pandemic compliancy. Hands up if you agree!
The pandemic has replaced in person communication and large social gatherings with online meetings. Houseparty, Zoom and FaceTime are now commonplace modes of interaction. So in some way we have been “saved by the screen.” Nonetheless, I am beginning to grow weary with the digital world.
The longer the pandemic situation lasts the more likely we are to feel frustrated with the restrictions the crisis has created. Several articles have suggested ways to combat our tedium. Everything from meditation, reading and exercise seem to be the most touted. All worth a try!
Creativity never stops even during pandemics. Perhaps one remedy for compliance fatigue could lie in innovation. An American high school principal, Doctor Quentin Lee, is a terrific example of Covid inventiveness. In preparation for the imminent return to school this educator created a video that spoofed MC Hammer’s hot “Don’t Touch This”.
Click on the YouTube site below to view Lee’s broadcast.!
