Does being fed up with quarantine lead to disobeying restrictions?
Pandemic fatigue causes different alarms due to the possible increase in cases of infections .
Even though the virus is still present, people experience pandemic fatigue. / Photo: Pexels
LatinAmerican Post | Ariel Cipolla
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Leer en español: ¿El hartazgo de la cuarentena lleva a desobedecer restricciones?
The world continued to turn, even during this time of coronavirus. Some countries decided to impose greater or lesser sanitary restrictions, but there is a common denominator: fatigue in this situation, which varies according to precisely what has happened in each territory.
From The New York Times they classify it as "pandemic fatigue", which complicates the increase in cases of coronavirus. Basically, cases could be skyrocketing due to a fed-up population, which, exhausted and impatient, takes on new risks and tends to neglect itself, sometimes breaking protocols or “abusing” freedoms.
Faced with this fatigue, many people make decisions that increase the number of infected, generating, paradoxically, a confinement. For example, from Télam they reported that Ireland "returned to quarantine" due to the second wave of coronavirus. Let's see, then, what is implied by the tiredness of the confinement that would generate quarantine disobedience.
Fed up with quarantine
The CNN medium reflects this perfectly, saying that a “second wave of COVID-19” arrived in Europe. At the same time, they wonder what went wrong to make this happen in that area, although, in reality, it is a global problem: people are tired of having to restrict their lives.
The spread of the virus is still continuing. As the vaccine did not arrive, the different governments of the world are faced with the difficult task of balancing the economy, health and mental well-being of people. It is precisely at this last point that, in one way or another, people are starting to go out more, even if it is against the rules.
For example, LM Neuquén indicates that there are people who "defy pandemics." In other words, they decide to risk their own lives to go out, even if the sanitary regulations do not allow it.
At the beginning of the quarantine in Argentina, for example, it became known that even famous people were breaking restrictions . The AS website reported that soccer player Marcos Rojo was accused of playing paddle tennis with friends. In other words, an activity that was not allowed by the Alberto Fernández government.
Also read: How will COVID-19 affect our next generation?
Faced with these situations, shown in the media, it seemed to generate a feeling that "everyone is returning to their normal life." Hence, according to El Popular, the main arguments for breaking the quarantine are “visits to friends and family”, which cause excuses for non-compliance with the presidential decrees.
Along the same lines, from Infobae they mention the case of Argentina, citing the Argentine neuroscientist Facundo Manes, who says that you cannot have an "eternal quarantine." If different authorizations are generated, it is possible that people only leave when governments allow it, avoiding that feeling that "you can do what you want".
Hence, for example, El Uncover Web warns that non-compliance with health measures is going strong among young people. Partly due to lack of fear and partly due to boredom.
This leads to the fact that, according to Misiones Online, even “clandestine parties” are generated, causing an increase in infections. Hence, social satiety due to government measures and the appearance of the virus itself may be the triggers for the increases in cases. Finding the balance between social and health can be the key to all this.