If 2020 will remain in history as a synonym for the COVID-19 pandemic, things are expected to be different in 2021. For the moment, the new year carries the aftermaths of its predecessor. 2020 left a world full of sorrow, unemployment, lockdowns, economic issues, and more. Over 85 million people got infected with the coronavirus, and 1.8 million of them died, according to worldometers.info.
Many people are waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines to end the horror, but the whole process will take several months. CNN writes about a major pandemic issue coming in 2021, one that will affect the collective mental health.
Self-isolation, sedentism, burnout, and more
It’s not mandatory to be Tesla’s reincarnation to understand why many people will feel awful after the ongoing pandemic will end. Avoiding physical contact with others too much, online school, remote work, and others automatically lead to unpleasant effects for mental health. People are social beings by nature.
Lisa Carlson, who’s American Public Health Association’s immediate past president, declared:
We don’t have a vaccine for our mental health like we do for our physical health,
So, it will take longer to come out of those challenges.
Carlson also believes that it will be critically important to focus on eating healthy food, moving throughout the day, spending time with loved ones and pets, and getting enough sleep. Frontline healthcare workers who had to witness deaths are likely to experience post-traumatic stress, which will further lead to sleep disorders. Even working from home is not exactly a positive thing, considering that it can be the cause for irregular sleeping patterns.
Taking care of ourselves and of others should be the main goal of everyone, and we can all have high hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic will end in 2021.
