Five years post-lockdown, what has been the impact of Covid on our physical and mental health? Did it simply provide a stress test that revealed existing problems, or, did it create new problems? Or both? What are the medium-term and lasting effects on each major age group in society: children, parents, working age adults, the elderly and retired? What impact has it had on the various professions? How can you minimise the ongoing impacts?
Five years after almost everyone on earth was impacted by the Covid pandemic, the long-lasting health implications of the virus, the lockdowns and restrictions imposed during that time are becoming clearer. For most healthy people, while the immediate and most serious threats from Covid have subsided, the ongoing damage afflicts many people.
At the macro level, Covid had two main effects. It stress-tested people and society, revealing weaknesses and problems that already existed. It made worse underlying health problems for individuals, and exposed the weaknesses in our health and welfare systems and structure. For example, the stress of the pandemic and the disruptions it caused to routine healthcare worsened the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular problems.
Covid also created new problems for both physical and mental wellbeing, at an individual and societal level. For example, the extended lockdowns and movement restrictions caused increases in sedentary behaviour. With gyms closed, and outdoor activities limited, many people put on unhealthy amounts of body fat, and experienced a decline in their mobility and physical fitness. Many of those people will never recover their health.
The WHO (World Health Organisation) estimates that between 10 and 20% of the people infected with Covid, (scientifically known as SARS-CoV-2), have gone on to develop “long Covid”, which is medically known as post Covid Condition.
In 1918, the Spanish flu killed between 20mn and 50mn people, of a world population of 1.8bn Those estimates vary so widely because medical care and record keeping was so much poorer then than now. Covid killed around 7mn of a world total of 7.8bn.
A wide range of symptoms of post-infection syndrome were been reported after both the Spanish flu and Covid pandemics. The impact on vast number of survivors has been severe. Post infection symptoms and health problems include:
- Chronic fatigue. An enduring feeling of exhaustion, which seems unshakable and does not improve with rest.
- Respiratory problems, such as shortness of breath, chronic or dry cough, lung scarring, bronchitis, interstitial lung disease (affecting the tissue between the lungs’ air sacs), pulmonary embolism (a blood clot travels to the lungs, blocking blood flow, causing chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing up blood), pneumonitis (inflammation of the lung tissue). It can lead to coughing, fever, and difficulty breathing and increased susceptibility to cold and flu type illness.
- Neurological problems, difficulties with memory, concentration, and general cognitive function, often referred to by patients as ‘brain fog’ have been widely reported.
- Joint pains and stiffness often co-occurring with swelling.
- Heart problems, including an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, and otherwise inexplicable cardiac symptoms and irregularities.
- Mental health, too, has been adversely affected by Covid. Again, citing the WHO, the world-wide rate of anxiety and depression in the first year of the pandemic increased by a shocking 25%. It will come as no surprise that the people whose mental health has been most impacted include healthcare professionals, frontline workers, and those whose loved ones were taken by Covid.
How long do such post infection symptoms last? In the Spanish flu, for some people, they were lifetime enduring. That may be the case with Covid, in our century.
Covid’s ongoing impact seems to vary depending on demographic factors
For young people, the harm done has been substantial. They suffered, and continue to live with, the aftermath, educationally, socially, psychologically, and physically. The pandemic almost certainly worsened many existing mental health issues. Being socially isolated in childhood is known to cause all sorts of mental health and social skills development problems. Since education is a compounding benefit, having it disrupted can and does have negative implications going on for life.
Their parents were negatively impacted in different ways. The additional practical and emotional work involved in home-schooling and childcare, while dealing with health insecurities, and perhaps also caring for their own parents, caused a huge spike in stress and mental health problems for parents. The financial stress that many were also subjected to, added yet another capricious variable to be juggled with all the others, increasing the number of people suffering from stress and burnout.
Working-age adults, without children were also negatively impacted. They experienced job losses, financial insecurity, and remote work arrangements had a profound impact on their mental and physical health. The isolation and uncertainty associated with the pandemic contributed to increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.
The elderly and retired and those with compromised immune systems were disproportionately affected by Covid and its associated restrictions. They were at much higher risk of severe illness and death. The imposed social isolation and severely limited access to healthcare, when they needed it most, and, helplessly witnessing the loss of their loved ones, drove a severe decline in mental and physical health of this most vulnerable group.
The Covid pandemic also had a significant impact on several professions. Most people are at least partially aware of the health risks faced by healthcare professionals. What is not widely known is the trauma they experienced with large numbers of people dying every day, for month after month. The pressure, stress, helplessness, and trauma led many to quit the profession, and many more have been left with complex PTSD, and burnout. Some of those are masking their problems in an attempt to keep their jobs. Others are now self-medicating, in unhealthy ways.
Worldwide, the entire hospitality and tourism industry was severely impacted. Vast numbers of people in insecure jobs lost their only source of income for well over a year. With no means of supporting themselves, many ended their own lives.
Education professionals, teachers, were also hugely impacted. They had to create new materials, or adapt existing materials to make them suitable for remote learning. That involved problems with technology, student engagement, and maintaining educational standards in the new distance learning environment.
All of this extra stress and work, they were expected to undertake for no extra pay. Many have been left so stressed and burned out that they have left the profession, or been rendered economically inactive, and thus not paying tax. Others remain in the profession and have quietly quit. That is, they have removed their discretionary labour, and now leave their initiative on the pillow in the morning, (to protect themselves and their mental health from further stress).
How can you minimise the ongoing and lasting impacts of Covid?
- Look after your mental health. There are many steps you can take to protect and improve your mental health. You can find 21 here.
- Build the self-esteem of young people. Having had a large portion of their lives disrupted, many young people will be experiencing more self-esteem problems than their predecessors. Here’s how to help.
- Maintain and protect your physical health. If you keep yourself as physically healthy as possible, your immune system will be stronger, and make you more capable of fighting off all sorts of diseases. Here are some techniques.
- Maintain strong relationships. It has been known for some time, that, as a general rule, the stronger a person’s relationships, the healthier they are both mentally and physically. Here are some relationship enhancing techniques.
- Overcome loneliness. Loneliness is harmful to our mental and physical health. Fortunately, there are plenty of methods that we can use to overcome it. Here are some.
- Improve education. Where young people have missed out on educational opportunities, great teachers can make a big difference in enabling their charges to catch-up. Here are the main techniques used by our most brilliant educators. Many of those techniques you can use to improve your self-education.
- Stay well clear of toxic work cultures. Toxic cultures put your physical and mental health at risk, and weaken your immune system. With so many employers complaining that they can’t find or recruit talented people, one of the best ways to avoid having to work in a toxic culture is to develop in demand skills. That way, you can choose to work only in mutually supportive environments. Here is how to spot and deal with toxic cultures.
As was the case with Spanish flu, Covid’s long-term effect will be with us for decades. The people who take the most self-empowered approach to minimising its impact, or even turning its lemons into lemonade are those who will thrive in the face of its challenges.
Professor Nigel MacLennan runs the performance coaching practice PsyPerform.
