CHAPTER 15: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT

When I wrote the prequel to this book, apart from acknowledging the ‘fear factor’, which can be an intrinsic part of being caught up in a pandemic, I have to confess that I didn’t give much thought to the wider psychological issues. I hope by including this chapter, I will have gone someway in redressing the balance.

I was recently listening to what was termed a ‘Healthcare Special’ series of webinars organised by the British Computer Society. The coronavirus pandemic has necessitated some rapid changes in the UK’s National Health Service and information technology has been at the forefront.

One of the panellists pondered about whether once the pandemic is over, will it be followed by a mental health pandemic caused by a plethora of psychological disorders generated by the stress and anxiety of living with COVID-19. A chilling thought. But there is evidence of mental disorders following the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic. Dr Greg Eghigian is professor of history at Penn State University and specialises in the history of psychiatry and mental health. Writing in the Psychiatric Times, he says:

Now, 100 years on, I would like to think that we have a far greater awareness of, and are much more capable of effectively dealing with, mental health issues.

15.1 The fear factor

I read a Facebook post a friend had shared that was attributed to Trey Gowdy, an American television news personality, former politician and former federal prosecutor. Gowdy had allegedly written about COVID-19 in the following post:

Although Gowdy has apparently since claimed the post was fraudulent, a claim supported by Snopes (Mikkelson, 2020), I traced the post back to 23 April 2020. On that date the US had registered more than 700,000 COVID-19³³ cases, along with around 51,000 deaths – a fatality rate of 7.3%. Seasonal flu can kill as many as half a million people globally each year.

But, whether you have an issue with their comparison of the statistics or not, I feel that the author, whoever they may be, does make a good point about panic. Each year, health services around the world prepare to deal with seasonal flu, whether it is vaccinating the vulnerable or treating patients needing hospitalisation. But, I personally have never been aware of any associated panic. It is certainly something the media does not seem to be overly concerned about. However, with the combined threat of COVID and seasonal flu joining forces with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), perhaps the media may take more than just a passing interest.

As part of the research I did for the masterclass I mentioned earlier, as well as for my original pandemic book published in 2016, I visited Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam. They were three of the six global 2002-2003 SARS hotspots. The others were Beijing, Toronto and Taiwan. I spoke to a variety of people and the one thing they all had in common was the sense of fear that they associated with SARS, even though compared with COVID-19, SARS was just a drop in the ocean.

I later came across John Barry’s quotation and although it is a reference to the Spanish flu, it could equally apply to just about any pandemic caused by a novel contagion. Thinking about Barry’s quotation and Gowdy’s alleged post made me ask myself the question – “Why is there no panic over seasonal flu?”

On reflection, I believe that because we have lived with the threat of flu for hundreds of years and, in principle, we understand it. That does not mean we like it – we have just learned to live with it. Moreover, every year there is a seasonal flu vaccine available.

However, when a nasty novel virus comes along and starts killing people, human nature demands that we panic, especially as we invariably don’t know what we are dealing with. In recent times, we have seen that with SARS, HIV/AIDS and now with COVID-19. While Barry’s quotation had the Spanish flu in mind, (which was also a novel virus), it could be applied to just about any new killer contagion. Unlike seasonal flu, there is still no vaccine for SARS and, despite efforts to find one, two decades on from the initial outbreak, SARS could still make a comeback.

There are already concerns that post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may well develop among frontline health workers, paramedics and care home workers, along with food store employees, the police, etc. In the UK, during the lockdown that commenced in March 2020, unlike other countries, public transport kept running. The Office of National Statistic (ONS) has since flagged that outside of the health and care services, bus, coach and taxi drivers, plus chauffeurs, in addition to sales and retails assistants, are the professions particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 (Windsor-Shellard & Kaur, 2020). These are the people on the front line who put their personal safety at risk every day.

We must not also forget the stress that people will have experienced in following their respective government’s lockdown instructions and staying at home for most if not all of the time. Some will be able to WFH, others have been furloughed, and of course there will be those who have lost their jobs. Here in the UK, the lockdown has been far less draconian than the measures applied in some other countries.

People forced into a lockdown and who suddenly found they had time on their hands have reacted in many different ways.

There has been an abundance of sad stories. But, there have been many accounts of volunteers in the community finding ways of helping the isolated and distressed. That said, there are those people for whom lockdown has felt like a prison sentence. The front door of their homes has seemed more like the door of a cell, even though it is, in effect, the door to their sanctuary from the virus. Sections 16 and 16.5 have some examples of how the community has come together to help those less fortunate individuals.

I talked about employers remembering their home working staff who would normally work in the ‘office’ in section 7.4. I know from my own personal experience, albeit back in the 1990s, that the transition from office based to WFH can be challenging. Every effort should be made to make those who unexpectedly find themselves in WFH mode still able to feel a valued part of the organisation.

There are those unfortunate individuals who have lost their jobs, and, on that point, I can emphasise having been made redundant three times in my career. On the first occasion, I’ll be honest, I was desperate, and felt as though the world was coming to an end. But, on the second and third times, I just took it in my stride. A good friend of mine has been made redundant a total of eight times, and we joke that he has made a career out of redundancy.

Joking aside, if you have found yourself in this position, you may need some serious advice in terms of the steps to take to get yourself back into employment. The advice available will of course vary from country to country. But, to provide you with some food for thought, I have included a link on my website entitled ‘Lost your job? Been furloughed?’:

www.bcm-consultancy.com/pandemicthreat

This will direct you to a UK government website that is part of the National Careers Service and, although you may not be UK based, it might provide you with some ideas about the way forward. Obviously, if your own government provides a similar service, it makes more sense to refer to that.

15.2 Domestic abuse

I wanted to complete this section by talking a little about domestic abuse (DA). It is a rather sad indictment of society that DA seems to be an integral part. In the days before COVID-19 arrived on the scene, regular cases of DA were brought before the various magistrates’ courts up and down the UK. Between March and June of 2020, UK police recorded a 7% rise in DA cases as compared with the same period in 2019. That said, the ONS has been reluctant to point the finger of blame at COVID-19 for being solely responsible, since DA offences have been steadily rising over recent years. However, as a magistrate friend of mine told me:

The charity, National Domestic Abuse Helpline, received approaching 50,000 calls during the initial three-month lockdown period in the UK. The charity calculated that this was over 80% higher than normal, with many of the victims, the majority being women, looking for refuge to escape from their abusers, (Gov.UK, 2021).

³³ Eight months later, by 31 December 2020, we now know that the total COVID-19 case count for the US had passed 22 million, while the death toll was approaching 400,000.