Crisis Fatigue, Getting Fired, and the Greatest Covid-19 Mystery of Them All

A roundup of stories we’re following about Covid-19 today

Yasmin Tayag
Medium Coronavirus Blog

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  • As cities across the country reopen, so too are workplaces. But no one can blame you for being scared to go back to the office, especially if you work in a tight space, like a medical clinic or crowded kitchen. After all, new Covid-19 cases are still being reported every day. Nevertheless, as the New York Times reports, people who are hesitant to go back to work are losing their jobs and benefits. Said one car salesman: “I’m damned if I come to work, damned if I don’t come to work.”
  • If there’s a spike in coronavirus cases in the next week or so, it will be difficult to disentangle its root cause, a public health expert tells the New Yorker. It’ll be tempting to blame it on the ongoing protests, but don’t forget that restaurants, businesses, operating rooms, and celebrations are also resuming normal activity all over the country right now. The protests have significantly complicated the coronavirus pandemic, but “the case for protest,” as Dhruv Khullar writes in the article, “is unequivocal.”
  • Are you deeply, utterly exhausted? Me too. It’s likely we’re all in the same boat right now — one that psychologists call “crisis fatigue.” As Matt Simon reports in Wired, feeling lost or numb right now is a natural response to our exposure to a seemingly interminable stream of uniquely crushing stressors: a global pandemic, mass unemployment, and…

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Yasmin Tayag
Medium Coronavirus Blog

Editor, Medium Coronavirus Blog. Senior editor at Future Human by OneZero. Previously: science at Inverse, genetics at NYU.