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Opinion | COVID fatigue — there's a good chance you have a case | Richard Ransom

ABC24 Anchor Richard Ransom shares in his Ransom Note how we're dealing with COVID fatigue.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Between hearing about the new record of a million new cases on Tuesday, how we're about to break the all-time record of people hospitalized with COVID, not to mention all the confusing guidance from the CDC on everything from masks to vaccines, it can all get very old.

How it's affecting us mentally is mixed.

University of Chicago psychologist Aylet Fisbach put it bluntly. 

"Psychologically, we are definitely at a low point and people just tell us in surveys they are tired, they've had enough of it," she said. "Even more important is how long we still expect it (the pandemic) to be."

So far, our fatigue isn't showing up in our behavior.

  • The number of people saying "It's a good time to get a job" has grown from 7% in the 2010 recession to 76%.
  • COVID isn't slowing down our spending. In fact, this holiday shopping season was 8.5% higher than last.
  • Although people admitting they're "burned out and tuning out", news about COVID is up five points since October at 45%.

Psychologists predict if omicron cases start to go down in February and with warmer temperatures, March should be a much better picture. I hope they're right!

I'd love to hear what you think. Join the conversation by email, Facebook or Twitter.

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