`I'm just not so sure'
Canadians reluctant to participate in `normal' activities in pandemic, poll finds
As Canadians enter year three of COVID-19, a significant proportion appear apprehensive about returning to mass public transit and other pre-pandemic “normal” activities.
A new Leger poll for Postmedia, conducted just as Omicron was beginning its ascent and before cases began skyrocketing, sought to assess people's comfort levels for increased contact with other humans.
Overall, almost half (46 per cent) of those surveyed between Dec. 10 and 13 were comfortable attending a house party with more than six people. But from there comfort levels quickly dropped off, with respondents expressing far less enthusiasm for riding public transit, attending large family and friend gatherings like weddings or funerals, getting on a plane for a vacation, attending concerts or sporting events or booking a cruise.
In most cases, this is just normal human anxiety and normal adjustment, psychologists say, though people aren't always accurate with their risk assessment or even predicting how uncomfortable they might truly be. However, for the more anxious or infection averse, “re-entry” can be more difficult.
A majority (56 per cent) of Gen Z and millennials, the 18- to 34-yearolds, said they were “already comfortable” with house parties of six or more, compared to 38 per cent of those aged 55 plus, while Quebeckers (57 per cent) were most comfortable with house parties compared to Ontario residents (41 per cent), British Columbia (39 per cent) and Manitoba/saskatchewan (35 per cent).
Atlantic Canadians (46 per cent) were most comfortable attending weddings or funerals, while Ontarians were the least comfortable (28 per cent). Ontario and Quebec residents were also the most skittish about getting on a plane for a vacation ( just 23 per cent of respondents from both provinces were “already comfortable” with flying compared to 40 per cent of Albertans).
Only 38 per cent of the public, overall, were comfortable riding public transit; 26 per cent said they “don't know when I'll be comfortable” taking mass transit.
“In Ottawa, in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), even in Winnipeg, a fair amount of investment and support goes into mass transportation — the subways and GO trains and light rail,” said Andrew Enns, Leger's executive vice-president. “And I'm almost convinced they're not based on a 38-per-cent ridership.”
“And there are more factors than just comfort — the whole `work from home' plays into that,” Enns said. Will people be commuting to the same degree?
Given the public financial support, “at some point someone will have to look at that and say, `What do we keep building out to? And what do we keep supporting, and to what degree, if we don't have the ridership we had pre-pandemic, and if that ridership doesn't look like it's returning anytime soon?'”
People were least comfortable with the idea of a cruise, unsurprising given the thousands of people confined to cabins during earlier COVID cruise-ship outbreaks. Only 16 per cent of the 1,532 adults surveyed said they were “already comfortable” boarding a ship. Over two-thirds (67 per cent) of those 55 and older don't know when they'll be comfortable taking a cruise vacation, compared to 35 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 saying this.
When the industry finally does get up on its feet, cruise-line operators may have to pivot, Enns said.
“A lot of people who cruise regularly are in that 55-plus age bracket. If that crowd that they relied on so heavily, pre-pandemic, is still saying, `I'm just not so sure,' then you gotta go elsewhere.”
The under-35's were more determined and aggressive about wanting to get on with life, compared to the 55 and older.
The younger and healthier are much less vulnerable to serious consequences if they do get COVID, and they also “really chafed” under the restrictions, lockdowns and social isolation, Enns said.
“They're at a different stage in their life where that social connection, that social support is really necessary,” said Nafissa Ismail, an associate professor in the school of psychology at the University of Ottawa. The 55-plus “are on the cusp of the most vulnerable age group” for COVID, she said.
An individual's comfort level depends not just on age, but personality and personal experience with COVID, Ismail said.
“The whole experience has been very traumatizing for many,” she said. “This will determine how ready we are going to be to return to the normal that we used to know.”
The naturally anxious may take more time to get there. But people also aren't great at predicting how they'll feel in certain situations, said Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of British Columbia.
“We're not very good at predicting what will make us happy and the same applies to fear: fearful people tend to over-predict their fears,” said Taylor, author of The Psychology of Pandemics.
“I'm expecting that, for many of these people who say, `Oh well, I'm going to be avoiding travelling on buses,' that they are probably overestimating how anxious they're going to feel on public transport.”
Anxiety levels fluctuate with infection levels and people's perceived risks. With each new variant, anxiety levels spike, Taylor said.
But people have been dealing with the unpredictability of all of this throughout the pandemic. Omicron just adds another layer of uncertainty, said Taylor, who suspects the pandemic will go out with a whimper, and not a bang.
“I think it will trickle out. Eventually.”
Until then, humans remain flexible and adaptive, he said. “And people will get back to doing those things, but the speed at which people resume so-called normality will differ depending on people's risk tolerance and anxiety levels.”
We're not very good at predicting what will make us happy and the same applies to fear: fearful people tend to over-predict their fears.