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I wrote about the mental and emotional toll that the pandemic is taking on public health experts, whoâve been running on fumes for months, and who are deeply frustrated with shouting empirical advice into a political void. 1/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
These folks are used by now to sharing expertise w/ journalists; less so to talking about themselves. I wanted to find out what theyâre going through. Many told me theyâre honored to be able to help. But many are also close to burning out. 2/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
Thereâs the physical toll of relentless work & little sleep. Thereâs also the psych burden of working in preparednessâconstantly staring at societyâs vulnerabilities, imagining the worst futures, and worst of all, seeing those futures come to pass. 3/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
Thatâs made worse by online trolls, social-distancing culture wars, the new predictable surge in cases, & Americaâs cavalier fatalism. âIt feels like writing âBad things are about to happenâ on a napkin and then setting the napkin on fire.â - @wormmaps 4/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
No one wants to be right. âOne of the big misconceptions is that we enjoy being right. Weâd be very happy to be wrong, because it would mean lives are being saved.â - @DrNLouissaint 5/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
Iâve seen public-health folks caricatured as finger-wagging ivory-tower alarmists, distinct from the everyday ppl affected by their advice. False. Dichotomy. The experts I spoke to going through it all, feeling trapped at home, missing their families. 6/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
Public-healthâand especially the folks who specialize in pandemic threatsâis not a big field. Thereâs only so much expertise to go around, and itâs not infinite. This will all be much worse if the people trying to make it better canât cope. 7/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
This is also a tangentially personal piece. A lot of what the sources have. voicedâfrustration about shouting into the void; wanting to not be right; âI always feel like Iâm never doing enoughââletâs just say itâs not unfamiliar. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/pandemic-experts-are-not-okay/613879/
(To clarify, this burnout piece is not the 6th big piece that I promised in this earlier thread: https://twitter.com/edyong209/status/1271440406375530497. Burnout is actually #7. The 6th is an 8500-word monster for the upcoming mag issue; it'll be out (in print and online) next month.)
