The impact of Covid19 has taken place at a number of significant levels. The major impact is on society itself and its major restrictions that we now have to recognise and live by.
The second psychological impact is on families and their freedom to mix with each other and move freely amongst themselves bearing in mind that our families operate in small units rather than large units.
This means we now have to make decisions to come together and create one big family unit which is not an everyday thing. This is completely against what Covid19 now a demand which is to separate and live separate lives.
The third psychological impact is on the individual. People in general now feel an element of fear in contacting, mixing and being in the same space as another individual. This goes against the natural feeling of us being a social animal.
People naturally feel better and more secure when they are in the company of others. They get reassurance from social contact. They crave the need to be in each other’s company.
What Covid19 has done is introduced the fundamental psychological element of fear. We suddenly live in a social climate where we now view the stranger with fear and suspicion and instead of psychologically welcoming the stranger we now run away and reject them.
The consequence for this is a major development in our insecurity about feeling safe in our communities. The government tells us that we cannot mix with any number above six. The impact of this for ordinary family of three generations with grandparents, parents and children is that the numbers for mixing will be far greater than six people.
The question for families is now who are going to leave out of the group? The big worry for Christmas is how are we going to celebrate Christmas as a family because again the question will be who cannot be invited? And who is going to take the responsibility to make that decision.
So now Christmas is a major pain for families created by Covid19. The impact of Covid19 is that it is a seed for a major mental health psychosis and there is no medication to treat this diagnosis. So, what is being depended on is the herd immunity which actually if it makes biological sense does not make psychological sense because if the majority of us obtain a psychological disorder because of Covid19 society will be very dysfunctional.
The further impact is that with our isolation there is an inability to go out, to work and be entrepreneurial. We have lost the ability to be innovative and think on our feet and therefore to create new products and services because we are not engaging with ach other and we are stuck at home.
Somebody said to me the other day, even though they weren’t old enough to experience it that Covid19 was like the beginning of the second world war. Unlike in 1939, when war was declared against Germany the whole world changed where people were living with the notion that death was around was the corner for somebody and everybody had to be careful that it was not them.
Since March 2020, everybody today feels the same way. This notion of death overhanging them personally. This added notion of fear even though one cannot put one’s finger on it. Just like the war, nobody knows how many battles we have to engage in before there is a winner and this is the point. The government, people and society is today not sure who is going to win this war and what price we have to pay either as individuals or as a society to come through this.
To end this piece is Joan Muraguri writing this piece at home reflecting the new way in which we have to bring light and understanding to society.
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