Don’t slack due to quarantine fatigue

Yes, it’s a thing – but please, don’t let your guard down on safety precautions

Do you have quarantine fatigue, readers?

A report on CNN Monday indicates that quarantine fatigue is a real thing. Known as “caution fatigue,” the concept refers to people who started out vigilant at the outset of COVID-19, taking precautions to protect both themselves and others.

CNN notes that at the start, that action is driven by fear and the “human instinct for self-preservation.”

Over time, however, the sense of urgency fades – and then people are no longer as motivated to comply with the safety guidelines.

The CNN report says caution fatigue can happen in any number of situations, “such as when you ignore an alarm of some sort and don’t take it seriously because you’ve heard it before.” Sometimes, it’s due to information overload, sometimes its due to your brain adapting to the threat, giving you a decreased sensitivity to the warnings around you, CNN reports.

Yet in Yuma, the threat from COVID-19 is far from over.

Let’s look at the last week here for some perspective on this.

On June 1, Yuma County had 1,289 COVID-19 cases. One week later, on June 8, the county case total jumped to 2,365 – just 213 cases shy of doubling. That’s in a single week, readers.

From the new daily case counts last week, it was clear we were on a higher trajectory, with 218 new cases alone reported on June 7.

We’ve talked about this quite a bit, Yuma. The danger has not yet passed here.

We can understand the concept of quarantine fatigue. It’s hard to hear the same message over and over again, but it’s still a message worth repeating. Don’t let down your guard or slack off on precautions because you are tired of hearing about it.

Keep social distancing, keep wearing your masks, and please, help stop the spread of COVID-19 in our community.