Psychology
There is a sense of solidarity formed by our shared experience of lockdown, but well-being and disinformation challenges still lurk.
There is a sense of solidarity formed by our shared experience of lockdown, but well-being and disinformation challenges still lurk.
According to endlockdowns.org, “Surveys around the world have found that lockdowns decrease average quality of life in the order of 20-40%.” Predictably, conspiracy theorist and former Public Party leader Billy Te Kahika was arrested outside TVNZ in Auckland on the first day of the first nationwide Level 4 lockdown since last year. About the same time, Stuff ’s John Hartevelt was opening a new toaster, only to find a message claiming that Covid vaccines are dangerous and nasal swabs don’t work.
The Prime Minister, however, has taken the high road and focused on the huge majority of folk who are doing exactly what is needed right now, following the sage advice contained in Aussie “supergroup” Chris Franklin and the Isolators’ song Stay the F--- at Home.
Twelve people were responsible for twothirds of the anti-vax shares and posts on Twitter and Facebook.
Yes, we slipped pretty quickly a and uncomplainingly back into that Level 4 routine, d didn’t we? Of course, we h have the huge advantage of b being able to look back at w what transpired between the first lockdown and this one.
When the idea of Covid alert levels was first posed to us in March 21 last year, there had been 13,291 Covidattributable deaths worldwide. Or, less than a third of a percent of the roughly 4.4 million deaths recorded to date.
It seems logical, to me anyway, to reflect on what has happened and imagine that had we not closed our borders and locked down our neighbourhoods last year, this country wouldn’t have the 18th-lowest Covid rate per capita of the 222 countries and other infection sites (remember the cruise ship Diamond Princess?) listed on worldometers.info.
Of course, whether this is the kind of data that counts as “evidence” to inform how we feel about
the current lockdown depends on whether you trust those pesky public-health experts and epidemiologists, political leaders and the mainstream media. If you think our experts are a bunch of charlatans, and you spend a lot of time on social media, you might hold opinions that have their roots in the words of people such as American osteopath Joseph Mercola, or environmental lawyer Robert F Kennedy Jr (yes, one of those Kennedys), or Nebraska chiropractor Ben Tapper.
Never heard of them? According to a July report by the UK- and US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate, these folk, along with nine others, were responsible for two-thirds of the 800,000 anti-vax shares and posts on Twitter and Facebook in a one-and-a-half-month period in early 2021. Their disinformation, filtered and paraphrased, has trickled down to this part of the world and inspired our local conspiracy theorists. It’s also the case that this “disinformation dozen” have profited very nicely out of telling people that they’re being fleeced by Covid-credulous prophets of doom.
If we return to the argument made by endlockdowns.org, is it true that lockdowns mess us up? The website argues that the effect on mental health is greater than that of Covid. Well, I’d be surprised if it didn’t impact on some, and likely many people. Intriguingly, it’s not a one-size-fits-all.
For example, one Italian study showed that young people who already experienced low moods became significantly worse. But young people with ADHD showed improvements in mood. Anecdotally, some young people engaging with mental-health services found locking down with their families really challenging, but others built relationships with family that wouldn’t have happened if they had a choice.
Research by the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a longitudinal study started in 2009, found that the 2020 lockdown resulted in small increases in worry and feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. For starters, these effects were much less serious than those seen in other parts of the world. But it’s important to bear in mind the impact of lockdown on people who lost jobs and are still worrying about getting back on their feet. Why didn’t we sob into our face masks as much as the US or the UK, even though our lockdown was among the most stringent in the world?
A local study found that the 2020 lockdown resulted in small increases in worry and feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.
First up, it was unambiguous. There was very little dithering and the messaging was straightforward. Trust in the Government and other authorities rose dramatically at the same time. That increase in trust, though, didn’t translate directly into better well-being, and there was considerable variation in feelings about economic security, but it could have been so much worse. By this I mean that the distress caused by the lockdown was mitigated by other factors, such as an increased sense of community and, really strikingly, a reduction in fatigue. Basically, we got more rest because we were locked down.
It’s important, again, to emphasise that lockdown sucked for many people. And when it sucked most, it was driven mainly by personal relationships. For every 10 people who got to build or develop an existing relationship, there were at least a few for whom forced cohabitation was bad.
So, as I write this, only two days into our latest lockdown, it doesn’t feel too bad. I’ll check in again if Delta has still got us locked down in a month. I’m also going to be doing my best to get a good night’s sleep, and use that time I’m not spending on the work commute to have a wee lie-in.