When will it all end? COVID fatigue overtakes people, who now seem resigned to their fate

Even as the medical profession learns of new ways of combating the infection and at least limiting the deaths caused by it, the contagion of SARSCOV-2 continues its macabre dance. But some things have changed radically.

We learn that there is such a thing as ‘Long COVID’ or Post-COVID Syndrome. The patient, having suffered from the infection and recovered sufficiently to test negative for the virus, continues to feel debilitating aftereffects of the illness. A persistent loss of sense of smell and taste, odd spikes of fever, cognitive dysfunctions and loss of memory, unexplained headaches, malaise, episodic breathlessness and significant depression are some of the prominent features. But perhaps the most prominent one is a chronic feeling of fatigue. One continues to feel tired for weeks to months.

Beyond all these symptoms, and beyond the initial panic and fear of unexpected death, a new feeling has taken over a vast majority of people- a feeling of chronic mental fatigue leading to resignation.

It does not matter whether you have already tested positive for COVID-19 or have been entirely symptomfree. The feeling is all-pervasive and no social class is immune to it. No age group has escaped it. It is a Que Sera Sera kind of feeling and I see it reflected in the eyes of people around me. Masks and other facial covers fail to hide it. The body language serves only to accentuate it. The conversations betray it. And one can even read it between the lines in the newspapers and on social media.

What has brought on this emotion?

The preceding months of prolonged lockdowns and ‘work from home’, the collapse of education as we knew it and the failure of schools, colleges and universities to resume functioning, the economic meltdown and failure of demand to pick up, the rampant retrenchments and widespread unemployment, the utter failure of healthcare sector to look after common and chronic illnesses while the pandemic has held sway, the physical distancing and face masks and many such factors brought on by the pandemic are clearly responsible, with no clear light at the end of the tunnel.

The political class has often clutched at straws, manipulated the statistics, economised with the truth, uttered blatant lies and occasionally patted itself on the back. They have gone back to their usual politicking.

The bureaucracy has continued to juggle with inane advisories for want of anything better to do to contain the pandemic. Even journalists have begun exhibiting this sense of ‘whatever will be, will be’ while reporting Covid-related news. The process of ‘Unlock’ has repopulated the roads with usual vehicular traffic. People are out on the streets again.

Hunger is a great stimulus. Migrant labourers have begun to repopulate urban centres that had provided them employment and sustenance BC, that is before Covid. The markets have opened for business certainly, but business has been terribly lean. When the man on the street is asked about his sense of utter resignation, he merely shrugs his shoulders and continues on his way.

For sure people still send WhatsApp messages of hope, of staying positive through these trying times and of a dawn that is bound to follow this long, dark Corona night. But these are forwarded rather perfunctorily. They are simply tired of the virus and have surrendered to it. This seven-month long vigil has exhausted them and numbed their senses. They discuss newer treatment modalities and promise of a vaccine, without any real enthusiasm.

Man is a social animal. But his social behavior has been bottled and his society lies fractured.

I find people have resumed their lives, but with weariness, as if they are resigned to their fate. These are telltale signs of great mental fatigue, a symptom far worse than the physical fatigue of Post-Covid Syndrome, if only because it affects the infected and the uninfected.

It threatens to be a long, dark winter. . .! But how I hope I am wrong.