Lockdown Fatigue - New Blog Post

We're coming towards the end of March and to be frankly honest, I am exhausted. Both physically and mentally. For the last year, I have been working on a much forgotten about frontline service. Everybody thinks about the Healthcare workers when it comes to the frontline, however the fact of the matter is there are many other services that provided for people on the frontline during the last year when they needed it that aren't given the same recognition. Now I am not saying that we should disregard the fine work of healthcare workers in both General and Mental Health services in this country. They have been exemplary in the past year in dealing with the problems that Covid-19 has presented. I'm merely asking people to remember the people who are making this country tick, the civil services, the bank workers, the driving instructors/testers, the driving licence office workers, the people answering queries in phone centre up and down the country and the shop owners and employees keeping food on our shelves to the coffee shop/café/restaurant workers providing people with takeaway and delivery of food with the delivery people when they need it.

Coming back to the the issue of fatigue in relation to this, remember the people behind the counter of the service you are accessing or the people answering the call you make in the call centre are people like you too. They are grateful for having a job in the midst of all this chaos yes, but having that job means also that the work has become a bit harder in the last year. They are bound by the law of the land and if they are told to close or reduce their hours it is not their decision to make. These are decisions made by others. What we ask is for patience. Which I grant you is difficult in a world one year on from this chaos beginning.

Coming back to the fatigue I am feeling which I'm sure others like me are also feeling. I should describe it. There is my physical workload, which I do not mind doing. However, in my line of work I am also required to be in office. This causes a stress for me that I only feel if I go food shopping. As I try to remember my mask wearing, cough and sneeze etiquette, wiping down surfaces and washing hands and when that is not possible, using hand sanitiser. I am unfortunately not vaccinated yet, this is because of the aforementioned view and narrow definition of frontline workers. I am feeling very vulnerable truth be told. It is causing me stress which in turn causes a massive fatigue to a point that I would miss a full day of my weekend exhausted in my bed instead of doing something more productive.

Another thing that I am fed up of is the closing of bookshops and record store as well as no access to clothes and shoe shops as well as some restaurants which serve food that just so happen to have a small bar area. If controlled correctly, these businesses should be allowed to reopen. This is not just for the benefit of the domestic economy but also for the benefit of individual's mental health.
One of the big mistake that we have made as a nation is the reopening of Primary and Secondary schools in the midst of a pandemic. We are literally endangering children because of this faux pas. There are more and more child/teenager cases being linked to schools than any other time before this. And instead of addressing the problem directly, the government have their heads in the sand. This is due to the fact that measures such as the restriction of the mobility of the student population by having teachers be the ones to go from class to class rather than the student, the unsupervised kids and children not adhering to mask etiquette and social distancing (yes, I'm saying that teachers should chaperone them on lunch breaks to enforce the rules on mask wearing in public and social distancing).  We should have learned from our history of disease spreading amongst our most vulnerable group by looking at how flu spreads as an indicator of what would happen if schools opened back up.

Back to my argument about opening back up. It should happen, it could help people not break the rules so much when it came to the issue. of quarantine. The Gardaí has noted an increase in people being fined for Covid breaches, this is because people are fed up with being cooped up. Allow people to travel more within their own county, open up services for people to not make them feel so trapped and that nothing was changing. There is only so much meditation and yoga people can do. It also would act as a bit of a help for people and might help to curb some of the social disobedience that has been happening. Notably though, the same thing had happened with the Spanish Flu when people had become tired of lockdown measure which in the end turned out to be detrimental. So even the smallest amount of a change at this rate would be welcomed for me. Even if in the end, the government just decided to extend the kilometre limit.

Anyways, we shall see what happens. Hopefully it is some sort of reprieve for us after this long winter. And hopefully we do have brighter days ahead.

Other References:

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/classes-sent-home-irish-primary-23792061

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/dublin-schools-covid-cases-update-19961064