A Manual for Post-Pandemic Germophobia Therapy

Back in March of 2020, I was completely dismayed by the tsunami of mass panic and irrational behavior in my community and around the world, triggered by the looming pandemic threat. I spent a lot of time engaging with others on social media, trying to calm the irrational terror that would ultimately lead to prolonged, disastrous and ineffective shutdowns and the end of life as everyone knew it.

Yes, the news was bad, and the predictions worse, but already it seemed there was no way the virus could be stopped in the wider population, and that draconian measures had the potential to cause tremendous collateral damage without clear benefits. Schools were closing, even with early reports that children were not susceptible to severe disease. Community groups were shutting their doors at a time they were most needed. People were avoiding their relatives, especially the elderly.

There were runs on masks and other PPE even though public health officials had warned of their lack of efficacy. Journalists, doctors, scientists and politicians were giving mixed signals, increasing uncertainty and fueling more panic. Scientific studies were becoming hyperpoliticized. People were terrified and losing control of their lives and their sense of security, and they were willing to do whatever was necessary to get some semblance of it back.

When I talked to people in the community or others on social media, it became clear that many lacked even a basic knowledge of the microbial world around them. Some acted as if even going outside, or being in rooms that had been occupied by others days before, or handling any object touched by another person were hazardous.

Very few individuals understood concepts like age stratification of severe disease, cross-protective immunity, herd immunity, or case or infection fatality rates, and almost no one accepted the fact that the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 was already present and spreading at a frequency and speed that would make it virtually unstoppable. They had no clue of the history of pandemic responses and the pre-pandemic consensus of what was achievable and what wasn’t.