CrisisCare

As pandemic fatigue sets in, trauma and exhaustion plague health care workers

NY Times:

 ....  Doctors, paramedics and nurses’ aides have been hailed in the United States as frontline Covid-19 warriors, but gone are the days when people applauded workers outside hospitals and on city streets. A year into the pandemic, with emergency rooms packed again, vaccines in short supply and more contagious variants of the virus threatening to unleash a fresh wave of infections, medical workers are feeling burned out and unappreciated.

Some health care experts are calling for a national effort to track the psychological well-being of medical professionals, much like the federal health program that monitors workers who responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Study: In pandemic era, older adults isolated but resilient Since the pandemic’s descent, they have generally been viewed as among those at higher risk — older Americans, some of them medically vulnerable, figuring out how to navigate life in a... AP NEWS

Since the pandemic’s descent, they have generally been viewed as among those at higher risk — older Americans, some of them medically vulnerable, figuring out how to navigate life in a COVID-saturated, increasingly isolated world.

 .... Public health officials stress that the COVID-19 vaccines will provide the best hope for returning to “normal.” Yet, a recent study from Kaiser Family Foundation revealed one-quarter of the population “probably or definitely would not take the coronavirus vaccine.”   

Much is at stake. For life to return to anything approaching normal, 75% of the population must be immunized. If enough people avoid the vaccine, COVID-19 transmission will continue. Honest, fact-based conversations about the vaccine among family and close friends have an urgency that strikes close to the heart. Since some conversations are likely to be emotionally charged, it’s important to be able to communicate and listen actively. You’ll need to understand your own feelings about the issues, and also deal with someone else’s strong feelings — all while being able to think clearly and stay focused — basic psychoanalytic technique! 

What the data say about border closures and COVID spread Models estimate that travel restrictions worked early in the pandemic, but became less effective throughout the year. Smriti Mallapaty nature

As countries in Europe rush to close their borders to the United Kingdom to prevent transmission of a new — and potentially more transmissible — variant of SARS-CoV-2, research has estimated the effect of international travel restrictions on COVID-19 spread earlier in the pandemic.