Share this Story: Editorial: Fatigue threatens unified COVID fight
Editorial: Fatigue threatens unified COVID fight
One of our greatest challenges is carrying on with a sense of unity and community until this crisis finally passes.
Heather Persson • Saskatoon StarPhoenix
The demands of this ongoing emergency have been evident in the lack of a clear, provincewide approach to the second surge of coronavirus infections. Photo by BRANDON HARDER /Regina Leader-Post
COVID fatigue is real. You can see it in the comments on our news stories. You can hear it in the voices of parents who are struggling to balance work with the needs of children. It is clear in the faces of the officials who are making public policy choices — trying to balance safety while not tanking the economy.
In fact, use of the word "fatigue" now seems like an understatement. One of our greatest challenges is carrying on with a sense of unity and community until this crisis finally passes.
Editorial: Fatigue threatens unified COVID fight Back to video
The demands of this ongoing emergency have been evident in the lack of a clear, provincewide approach to the second surge of coronavirus infections. Asking urban dwellers to wear masks, when people in smaller centres were not under the same rules, helped create two camps in the Saskatchewan population. If wearing a mask is effective in Saskatoon or Regina, it is effective in a town like Davidson.
Through incremental announcements, the government has landed on initiatives that are hopefully significant enough to decrease transmissions and prevent deaths. Premier Scott Moe must be willing to make further, significant curtailments of activities to stop the spread. An approach that uses small steps must be replaced by a willingness to be bold — no matter how difficult that may be for an exhausted electorate to accept.
What the government does not control — except through fines and other difficult enforcement tactics — is how engaged the public is in flattening the curve of transmissions. Average citizens must continue to put energy into making wise day-in, day-out decisions that have the greater good in mind.
One of the worst symptoms of COVID fatigue is a loss of the ability to hear. By now, many of us have chosen sides. People feel they have to show allegiance to the doctors calling for increased measures, or to businesses fighting for economic survival. Some point to the solitary and heartbreaking deaths caused by COVID, while others emphasize the threat of depression due to lockdown measures. And the chasm between those who stand behind the science of mask efficacy and those who do not has led to ugly clashes in families and communities.
Entrenchment is dangerous. We must continue to listen to new facts as they become available. We must seek to understand those with different opinions — even when we find it frustrating. There has to be room for balance and nuance when we discuss the pandemic.
Science and strong public policy must guide our decisions in these times. We also need to understand the fears and experiences of those who find that guidance hard to accept.
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