The Human Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic : A Review of International Research

This book is about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human society. The current global pandemic has thrown a diverse set of entwined social, psychological, and economic disruptive impacts of human suffering on societies, groups, and individuals due to the flow on effects of not only the disease itself but massive dislocations of the everyday routines of life driven by mandated restrictions imposed by national governments. This intersecting set of experiences has evoked considerable human distress particularly in the fields of employment, education, healthcare work, and bereavement rituals. This text reviews, from existing knowledge and the research emanating in the last two years from around the world, the issues and problems faced by people and their governments. Contents 5 About the Author 10 1 Definitions and Background Issues 11 Introduction 11 The Covid Virus. A Brief Travelogue 13 Some Definitions: Pandemic, Epidemic and Endemic and Other Related Words 17 What Is a Pandemic? 17 What Is an Epidemic? 18 How Do Epidemics Differ from Pandemics? 18 What Is Implied by Endemic? 19 Relationships Between the Three Terms 19 Epicentre and Outbreak 19 Disease Severity and Transmissibility 20 Severity 20 Transmissibility or Contagiousness: The R, R0 and Rt Indices–Tracking Infectiousness 22 The Origins of the Concept of R 22 Problems with R0 24 Rt (Reff) 25 Provide Sensible Reassuring Statistics 27 Rapid Antigen Test, Social Distance and Mask Wearing 27 Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) Problems 28 Social Distance Issues 28 Mask Wearing and Aerosol Transmission 29 References 33 2 A Pandemonium of Pandemics and Epidemics 34 In the Past 34 The Introduction of Methods to Control Disease Spread 36 Quarantine 36 Statistical Analysis 36 Vaccination 37 Herd Immunity 37 There Is No After Covid! 39 Effects of Some Historical Pandemics 40 COVID-19: The Current Global Culprit 43 Covid Variants 44 The Age of Omicron: The Route to Normal? (Whatever that May Be) 45 Initial Strategy 45 Sweden Did Their Own Thing 47 Is Covid as Deadly As Feared? The Australian Experience 48 The Reset Strategy 49 UK Experience a Warning for Other Countries 50 The Australian Approach 51 The Pandemic of Reinfection 55 Covid and Pregnancy 56 COVID Isn’t Over When You Stop Coughing; Beware the Coffin They Carry You off in! 57 Transitioning from Intensive Care 57 Long Covid 57 Research into Long Covid 59 Cardiovascular and Diabetes Risk 61 Erectile Dysfunction 61 Brain Fog 61 References 64 3 Impacts of Fake News and Conspiracy Theory 67 Introduction 68 The Conspiracy Theories, Fake News and Misinformation Virus 68 Political Polarisation 69 The Heterogeneity of Virus Restrictions Opposition 70 Anti-vaxxers 71 Denialism 74 Artificial Confirmation Bias from Social Media 75 Conspiracy Theories 76 Snake Oil Salesmen and Miracle Cures 79 Disassembling Symbols and Slogans at Anti-Covid Vaccination Mandate Protests 80 Political Beliefs of Protesters 82 Thwarting Fake News and Misinformation 83 Managing the Pandemic 83 The Role of Debunking 84 Rogan: Podcasts and Fact-Checks 84 The Inoculation Metaphor—Pre-emptive Debunking 85 Anti-viral Myth-Busting Measures 86 Bad News Game 88 The Health Belief Model 90 Some Principles to Guide Our Own Behaviour on Social Media 91 References 92 4 Following Doctors’ Orders: Persuasive Communication Delivery 98 Following Doctors’ Orders 98 Compliance Versus Adherence and Internalisation 99 Psychological Studies in Persuasive Communication 102 The Source of the Message 102 Credibility 102 Attractiveness 103 Opinion Leaders 103 Presenting the Message 105 One-Sided or Two-Sided Presentation 106 Order of Presentation 107 Discrepancy Effects 108 Effect of Emotional Factors of Fear and Threat 108 Emotion and Risk Perception 110 Context of Presentation 111 Group Decision Making 111 In-Group Pressure 111 Social Norms 113 The Medium 114 Readability: Use Appropriate Language 116 Using Visual Materials 118 The Recipient/Audience Characteristics in Susceptibility to Persuasion 121 Psychological Reactance 122 References 125 5 Impacts on the World of Work 130 Why Do People Work? 130 Covid Changes to the World of Work 132 Unemployment 133 Carpe Diem. Changes to Work Contexts 135 Working from Home (WFH) 136 The Hybrid WFH Arrangement 143 Some Major Surveys of WFH and Its Variants 145 Legal Complexities 154 The Zoom Effect 155 Changes to Perceived Reasons for Working Induced by Covid 158 Prognosticating the Post-Covid Landscape 159 Conclusions 161 References 162 6 Isolation, Group Identity and Community 165 The Disruption of Connections: Social Isolation and Loneliness 165 Breakdown of Society 165 Cultural Responses 167 Shared Identity Is Fragile and Needs to Be Nurtured 168 Not a Zero-Sum Game. Self Gain Versus Cooperation 169 The Known Effects of Loneliness and Social Isolation 171 Loneliness an Emerging Issue Even Pre-Covid 172 Reviews and Surveys on Isolation and Loneliness in the Covid Context 173 Groups and Identity: Not Everyone Panics in a Pandemic 180 Disaster and ‘Panic’ 180 Proximity to Ingroup and Personal Space 181 Cooperation: Aligning Individual and Community Interests 183 Social Connection Not Social Isolation 184 Identity Leadership 185 Social Inequality Between Groups 186 We Need Friendship to Overcome the Stresses of Isolation 187 Government Initiatives 187 Some Things You Can Do if You Feel Lonely 188 If You Know Someone Who Is Lonely 189 Arts Therapy to Dissipate the Isolation Blues 189 Aged Care Isolation 191 References 192 7 Impacts on Students, Teachers and Education Delivery 198 Implications of the Covid Pandemic for Education 198 Impacts on Pre- and Early Primary School Children and Their Parents 203 Consequences for Older School Students 206 Research on Consequences of School Closure 209 Competence Problems in the Switch to Distance Learning for Students 216 Student Attributes for Success 216 Teachers’ Wellbeing in the Shift to Distance Learning 220 Covid Effects on Post-School Education and Scholarship 222 Wellbeing of Students 225 Should Parents Be More Worried About Mental Health Than Covid? 227 Home Schooling 228 References 229 8 Personal Pandemonium: Stress and Mental Health 238 Stress 238 Biochemical Responses to Stress: The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) 239 Life Events 240 Two Important Personality Factors 241 Stress Itself Is a Cause of Stress 242 Burnout 242 Types of Illness Caused by the Most Stressful Life Events 243 Threats to Quality of Life and Human Wellbeing 243 The Impact of Covid on Prevalence of Psychological Disorders Among Adults 244 Impact of Covid Among Children and Young People 249 Large-Scale Multinational Studies of Young People 252 Suicide 253 Adolescence as a Critical Period 254 Psychological and Social Impact of Covid on Healthcare Workers (HCW) 255 Domestic Violence (DV) 260 Online Medical, Psychological and Psychotherapy Support 262 Activities to Manage and Ease Stress 264 References 269 9 Managing Grief and Death 278 Introduction 278 Grief 279 More Recent Approaches to Grief Trajectories 281 Loss Can Cause Disease and Mortality Among the Bereaved Too 283 Spontaneous Strategies for Mourning Under Covid Restrictions 284 Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) and Complicated Grief (CG): Same or Different? 287 Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) 288 Complicated Grief 289 Symptoms of CG 291 Mortality After Covid 292 Anticipatory Grief Counselling 293 Re-grief After Covid-19; Social Support and Loneliness in Grief 293 Was ‘Heaven’ Ever an Ethical Issue? 296 Activities to Support Resolution of Grief 297 A Set of Resources 298 References 298 10 An Ethical Dilemma: Freedom Versus Authority 302 Respect for the Law 302 Over-reach Has Infected Protest Rallies and Amplified Concerns About the Ethics and Morality of Some Government Actions 305 Sowing the Seeds of Totalitarianism 308 Some Legal Responses: The Tide Is Turning 310 Freedom to and Freedom From 312 Ethics and Covid Regulations 313 Ethics of COVID-19 Vaccination and Other Requirements 315 Gravity of Threat 316 The Vaccines Are Safe and Effective 317 Better than the Alternatives 319 Coercion Is Proportionate to Risk-Mandated Vaccination 326 Biomedical Ethics: Do No Harm. The Four Principles of Biomedical Ethics 327 Beneficence 328 Non-maleficence 328 Autonomy 329 Justice 329 Ethical Dilemmas in Health Care 330 Unequal Distribution of Vaccines 330 Moral Distress Among Health Staff 332 What Next? Moral Progress After COVID-19 334 References 335 11 The Rush to Publish Research on the Pandemic 338 The Scientific Method: Not All Research Is Valid and Reliable 338 Methodological Issues Concern 342 Dodgy Research and Bogus Science in the Covid Pandemic 346 Some Specific Inaccurate Promotion of Covid Scientific Research 346 The Danger in Pressure to Undertake Research on an Immediate Problem 349 The Preprint 349 Scienceploitation 350 There Are Models and Models 351 Trust in Scientific Research 352 References 354 Epilogue: The Future 358