Tonic for rising 'COVID fatigue' could be tighter restrictions

A medically suppressed immune system to control chronic intestinal disease puts self-described germaphobe Kelly Lombardo, who is also asthmatic, at extra danger for the coronavirus, which early on sickened both her parents, her mom gravely.

So for the pandemic’s first months, she left her West Islip home just four times — once in April for Easter, twice in May and then in June to go fishing.

But now she’s had enough of the pandemic restrictions.

"I’m totally over it now," said Lombardo, 46, a hairdresser, who’s going out way more and wouldn’t wear a mask if she didn’t need to at her job. "I’m, like, over it. I need life to be somewhat normal again."

Eight months into indefinitely long restrictions that can be inconvenient, annoying, uncomfortable, monotonous and isolating — but are crucial to halting a once-in-a-century pandemic that has, as of Saturday, infected more than 10.8 million Americans and killed at least 245,453 of them, according to Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 tracker — epidemiologists, physicians, government officials and other policymakers are trying to treat a nonmedical yet potentially dangerous syndrome: "COVID fatigue."

Symptoms can include: Attending social gatherings that are larger, and doing so more often. Less diligence with mouth and nose coverings. Shirking social-distance mandates. Defying travel regulations.

"Pandemic fatigue is very real," said New York City health commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, cautioning that relaxing adherence to the restrictions is "a threat to our progress" in reducing the state's infection rate to one of the nation’s lowest from the highest.

Chokshi said that policymakers have sought to make "small accommodations" — for instance, encouraging Halloween fun for kids, provided it was in small groups and outdoors — to avoid needing to impose even greater restrictions later.

"So, not restricting everything, but allowing people some outlets, but doing it in a way that prevents further spread of the virus, because we all want to avoid those more draconian measures," Chokshi said.

Dr. Jay Varma, a senior adviser to the city on the pandemic, said signs of COVID fatigue can be seen in news of big parties needing to be broken up by the government.

One way to manage COVID fatigue, he said, is to focus on "the things that we can do day-to-day to make ourselves happy and comfortable … the things that give us pleasure, that may not be the things that we would normally do."

David Jaffe, 55, of East Meadow, an operations and project manager, got coronavirus early in the pandemic — as did eight other members of his family. His wife’s father died of the virus. For months after the family got sick, Jaffe said, he, his wife and two daughters stayed home, and kept a distance from everyone but family members who had gotten it. Things are looser now.

(Reinfection has been rare, although "some reinfections are expected," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal said that the phenomenon has been reported "in at least four individuals worldwide.")

"Based on just what we know, and we don’t know a lot," Jaffe said, "I’d be more careful if I didn’t get it in the first place."

"We’re going out more. I’m going to a restaurant, which we never did before," he said.

Early on, there were visits with his mom, brother-in-law, his daughter, but only with masks and a distance of 10 or 15 feet. "And now we don’t do that," he said, though they're not abandoning all caution.

"We’re living our lives, but we're just being careful," he said, adding: "The virus is there. It’s out there."

Stephen Field, 55, of East Hampton, says he’s still wearing a face mask but is seeing family and friends more. He’s begun attending small gatherings and meeting babies born to the family during the pandemic.

"I’ve been venturing out a little bit more, absolutely." he said, adding: "We gotta start living a little … We just can’t lock ourselves behind the door."

Policymakers also face doubt from some over the restrictions, without which no country in the world has beaten back the pandemic. In China, New Zealand and Australia, for instance, aggressive, shorter lockdowns early on, coupled with contact tracing, masking and social distance, have made those countries virtually virus-free.

Field questions the scientific consensus that masks are among the most effective ways of stopping the virus’ spread ("I don’t think it’s effective as they say it is"), is skeptical that the virus is as dangerous as predicted ("I’m starting to lose trust in the information we get") and said on the Sunday before Election Day that he's sympathetic to the notion that "this will all be gone once the election’s over."

Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a social scientist and physician at Yale University whose new book is "Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live," stresses the importance of explaining to the public "what we have to do and why have to do it." He noted that disputes over pandemic restrictions were not new, pointing to arguments a century ago, during the time of Spanish flu, over mask mandates.

"We all wish this bad thing hadn't happened to us, but it has. It’s no one’s fault. We happen to be alive in a moment in time when a very bad germ has entered our species, and we just have to accept this reality. We can't wish it away. We can’t deny it away. That's a childlike response. That's not a mature response," Christakis said, adding of the restrictions: "It’s unpleasant. It's like, if you're having root canals, you might put up with one or two, but you might say after that, ‘I don't want this anymore.’ But your not wanting it has nothing to do with whether you need the root canals."

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has urged New Yorkers to push through COVID fatigue as a way to help drive down the rate of coronavirus. On Saturday, the rate of positive cases hit 3.3% across all of Long Island.

In Nevada, Illinois, Colorado and elsewhere, state officials have cited COVID fatigue to help explain needing to reimpose restrictions on gatherings.

"We all feel COVID fatigue, and it results in riskier behavior and complacency," Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said last month. "We can't let that happen." He has since tested positive for the virus.

On Long Island, Rich Glanzer, 49, of Ronkonkoma, who works in public relations, says that although he’s adhering to precautions such as diligent mask wearing recommended by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, "I’m frustrated with where we’re at, and I wish it would go away."

Glanzer has eschewed his earlier policy of strictly avoiding in-person gatherings. Now he’s been meeting friends outdoors at restaurants, hitting up his CrossFit gym in Oakdale and joining a hockey league in Farmingdale. He’s willing to take the added risks, he said, but is taking a timeout before seeing his 85-year-old mom in person.

"I originally wanted to wait two weeks to see my mom after I played a hockey game," he said. "But my mother has guilted me into seeing her five days, or one week, after a game, even though she’s taking the virus seriously as well."

The virus has been particularly devastating for older people: about 85% of New York State's nearly 26,000 fatalities have been aged 60 or older, according to state health department figures.

Back in March, when the pandemic came to New York, there could be no restriction-fatigue for Jaffe or his eight family members or anyone else — because there were few restrictions yet in the United States.

"We didn’t even have the opportunity to prepare ourselves to protect ourselves," Jaffe said, adding: "My father-in-law might be alive today."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.