The president is taking some flack for telling 60 Minutes that the pandemic is over.
While there have been more signs that the seriousness of the pandemic has clearly lessened, there also are signs that the pandemic’s impact may never end.
California this week lifted its requirement that unvaccinated people at schools, healthcare facilities and other settings do not need to get weekly tests. And the state is also easing its masking guidelines.
The director of the California Dept of Public Health saying, “We’ve entered a phase of the pandemic where the majority of people in these workplace settings are vaccinated.” And he says that with the youngest Californians eligible for the shots, we all are better protected against severe illness and hospitalization.
But also this week, a well-respected health guidelines group recommended that doctors regularly screen all adults under 65 for anxiety because they say the pandemic has increased it and is still affecting a lot of people’s mental health.
These health experts say anxiety is among the most common mental health complaints and affects about 40-percent of women and at least 25-percent of men.
Their guidelines already have recommended that doctors screen for signs of depression which health experts also increased after the pandemic began.
So while we all want it to be over, the impact of the pandemic on our mental well-being is not. And admitting that, will help all of us be motivated to address it and treat it so that we all can finally say it’s over.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images