The pandemic is over, but are we still recovering? Take a short survey about how you feel
The global pandemic that began in mid-March 2020 and dragged on for years is finally behind us. Nearly 1.2 million Americans died in the pandemic, and over 16,000 in the state of Washington. Research has found that the mental health of those who survived was severely impacted, with spikes in depression.
“Data shows us that there was significant impact on people’s mental health with the onset of COVID,” Shannon Thompson, executive director of the Washington Mental Health Counselors Association, said in an email to McClatchy.
Americans will be traveling at record-setting numbers this summer, the school year flew by just as in pre-pandemic years. New movies are back in the theaters, and you’d be hard-pressed to find even a medical facility that still requires masks.
But that doesn’t mean that life has gone back to normal, or that everyone feels like they have physically, emotionally and mentally recovered.
Research from the National Institutes of Health aimed to quantify how many Americans have suffered from COVID-related post-traumatic stress symptoms. While frontline workers are more than 4 times likely to have suffered from post-traumatic stress, 21% of the adult public have also reported symptoms.
McClatchy wants to hear from readers about how they are feeling, what they experienced, and what they learned about their mental and physical health during and after the pandemic.
