By Stacey Colino, The Washington Post, August 24, 2021
It’s an unfortunate example of deja vu all over again. The devastating surge in the delta variant of the coronavirus has abruptly curbed our newfound freedom — bringing back mask mandates, restrictions and fear, and leaving many Americans frustrated, stuck, demoralized or worse. Among the most common responses are despair (I can’t go through this again!) or anger (I can’t believe I have to go through this again because some people won’t get vaccinated!) or a deep sense of weariness.
These reactions are understandable given what we’ve been through, experts say. “People lived for a year, terrified they were going to get covid, and we had a carrot in front of us to get vaccinated then go back to normal life,” says psychologist Alice Domar, executive director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health in Waltham, Mass. “People were celebrating when they got to two weeks after their second vaccine. They had a month or two of getting a taste of freedom, then Provincetown hit” — the July outbreak in the Massachusetts beach town fueled by the delta variant — “and on a dime people had to start thinking about changing their behavior again.”
Eileen Siegel, 44, a single mother with a 6-month-old baby, is angry about being compelled to change her behavior because of other people’s thoughtlessness. “I haven’t taken my child out, because I don’t want to expose my baby to somebody who hasn’t been vaccinated and won’t wear a mask,” said Siegel, a middle-school special-education teacher who lives in Westwood, Mass. “I have a lot of pent-up rage toward the part of the population that is not following the guidelines. I wish everybody would do their part to help us move forward.”
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