Page 173 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

about the pandemic and its dangers (availability makes us rely on
immediate examples that come to mind when evaluating

something and salience predisposes us to focus on things that are
more prominent or emotionally striking). For months, COVID-19
became almost the only news, news that was inevitably almost
exclusively bad. Relentless reports of deaths, infectious cases

and all the other things that might go wrong, together with
emotionally charged images, allowed our collective imaginations
to run riot in terms of worry about ourselves and our closest loved
ones. Such an alarming atmosphere had disastrous effects on our

mental well-being. Furthermore, media-amplified anxiety can be
very contagious. All this fed into a reality that for so many
amounted to personal tragedy, whether defined by the economic
impact of income loss and job losses and/or the emotional impact

of domestic violence, acute isolation and loneliness or the inability
to properly grieve for deceased loved ones.

Humans are inherently social beings. Companionship and
social interactions are a vital component of our humanness. If

deprived of them, we find our lives turned upside down. Social
relations are, to a significant extent, obliterated by confinement
measures and physical or social distancing and, in the case of the
COVID-19 lockdowns, this occurred at a time of heightened
anxiety when we needed them most. Rituals that are inherent to

our human condition – handshakes, hugs, kisses and many others
– were suppressed. Loneliness and isolation resulted. For now,
we know neither whether nor when we might return completely to

our old way of life. At any stage of the pandemic, but particularly
towards the end of lockdowns, mental discomfort remains a risk,
even after the period of acute stress has passed, something that
psychologists have called the “third-quarter phenomenon” [152] in

reference to people who live in isolation for a protracted period of
time (like polar explorers or astronauts): they tend to experience
problems and tensions towards the end of their mission. Like
these people, but on a planetary scale, our collective sense of

mental well-being has taken a very severe knock. Having dealt
with the first wave, we are now anticipating another that may or
may not come, and this toxic emotional mix risks producing a

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