Commentary: Can we live with COVID-19 and stop worrying?
SINGAPORE: Similar then many, I have taken to cycling and it gives me groovy joy as I explore little-known pockets of light-green.
Nearly a month ago, I experienced something scary. My legs cramped upwards badly during the terminal part of my ride and the pain shot upward every time I moved.
I didn't think I could arrive home. But I decided to end fighting the pain and the overwhelming fear that was taking hold of me.
Some rest, a few deep breaths and a quick pep talk later, I climbed back on my bike. And as the pain somehow eased, I slowly pedalled the last few metres dwelling, feeling elated and my before fears a distant memory.
That incident made me call back virtually the fears we focus on and how we reinforce them.
The late Dr Wayne Dyer who spoke widely on motivation and self-improvement once said: "What you recall about, expands. If your thoughts are centered on what's missing, then what is missing, by definition, will take to aggrandize."
Since mid-September, Singapore has been going through some other challenging phase in our fight against COVID-nineteen. As we see daily infections and deaths climb, our feelings of fear and feet rise too. Already feeling fatigued and missing the things we used to relish, similar travel, this sense of weariness is palpable.
Co-chair of the multi-ministry task force Lawrence Wong addressed this on Sat (Oct two) during a media briefing. He said this electric current wave can await worrying but that we cannot "get also carried away" or be "also anxious or fearful" about daily COVID-19 case numbers.
For many of united states of america, the high daily numbers simply confirm our fears nearly how the pandemic will hurt the states and the more we call up about it the worse nosotros feel.
In social psychology, this is chosen "social salience " . This refers to how much a particular object or upshot attracts attending and it usually stems from how much it stands out from the things we are used to.
Social salience tin be a survival mechanism: Information technology makes us enlightened of potential threats. It focuses our attention on what has inverse in the surround and triggers sure defence mechanisms.
Rising OF Fearfulness AND Feet
Even so, this same survival mechanism can also lead to biased perceptions. Nosotros telephone call this the "salience bias".
It happens when we make decisions based on what is most noticeable or of import to us. Unfortunately, we may end up overlooking other important data in the process.
In our COVID-19 globe, considering of the information we become near daily infections and deaths, information technology is natural for people to focus on just those things.
Imagine for case, if data on how many people die in route accidents were published every day. People may begin to fright driving and may avert it.
Only it is likewise fact that the vast majority – 98 per cent - of infected cases are mild or asymptomatic. Children nether 12 deemed for just 0.6 per cent of all local infections and none required critical care. Doctors have as well reiterated that vaccination and infection provide valuable immunity confronting variants.
Yes, COVID-19 can be devastating for those who are vulnerable, and the science is still unclear about the long-term effects of an infection. These are things we practice our best with merely cannot control.
For the balance of united states, so long equally we are socially responsible, we still take the opportunity to go about our daily lives without feeling constantly trapped past fear.
A Hazard TO TRANSITION TO RESILIENCE
All major societal upheavals become through a transition phase. Auguste Comte, one of the founders of sociology equally a subject and sociologist Herbert Spencer, described how social change can be viewed using an evolutionary model similar to how we have seen organisms evolve over fourth dimension.
Hence societies evolve towards a more advanced and improve state.
Interestingly societies which cannot adapt fast enough to external changes will decline. According to this evolutionary model, all societies go through this and arrive at different trajectories.
Singapore is no different. It is going through a period of evolutionary transition, towards endemic COVID-19 living. As we have seen, this process can be rocky as all transitions are bound to be.
But the transition offers a chance for us to be stronger, more resilient, and mayhap even imbued with newfound abilities and capacities.
This, however, requires a shift in the way we think about dangers and risks, and not exist preoccupied by them. Responsibleness for inculcating a resilient societal mindset does non merely rest with the Government only every resident.
How do we go nigh a new way of thinking near COVID-19?
The first stride is to move away from the fixation with infection numbers, prioritise medical attention for the most vulnerable and continue safe management protocols and vaccination.
Second, normalise the do of those with no or mild symptoms recovering at habitation. Without this shift, we may continue to see those with mild symptoms panicking, heading to hospitals and taxing vital medical resources that could have been directed to those who need it more urgently.
3rd is to focus on what nosotros tin exercise to aid fellow Singaporeans who might not be coping besides, and on meaningful things we can be grateful for and have comfort in.
Finally, we can think well-nigh what will be better when this COVID-xix storm passes. For instance, migrant worker dormitories of tomorrow volition be safer with even better germ-free conditions.
What does the data say about COVID-19 booster shots and why the mixed scientific views? Experts weigh in:
OUR COLLECTIVE EMPATHY
The seismic shift wrought by COVID-19 has like beneficial effects on other areas of our lives – like our ability to work from home or detect the joys of our green spaces.
Businesses too are pivoting with new innovations. Every bit a society, we have besides become aware of the nigh hard striking among the states and tin can now sympathize and find better ways of helping them cope. In curt, nosotros have the potential to evolve as a guild, and the procedure has already begun.
As Viktor Emil Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, writer and Holocaust survivor one time said, "Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude."
Victor Frankl likewise talked virtually " dereflection" which involves pivoting one's focus abroad from oneself and towards others.
This, according to Frankl, makes one complete and prevents " hyper-reflection" on anxiety-generating situations. Information technology all comes down to where we make up one's mind to put our focus and what nosotros chase.
If done collectively every bit a society, the touch on tin can be profound. COVID-nineteen then becomes just another role of reality to adapt and navigate through.
Dr Omer Ali Saifudeen is a sociologist and Senior Lecturer, Public Safety and Security Plan, at the Schoolhouse of Humanities and Behavioural Sciences, Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/covid-19-case-death-number-vaccine-restriction-stay-home-fear-mental-health-290726
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