Has the COVID-19 pandemic caused a collective trauma?
“People have already been traumatised, and then under the stress of COVID, that trauma is being expressed.”
“If you look at what drives stress in our society … I’m talking about physiological and emotional stress in a human being, these are factors such as uncertainty, loss of control, lack of information, and conflict. And all of those have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis,” says trauma expert, Gabor Mate.
“So, on the one hand, we have the impact of the virus itself, and the threat that it poses to people, the lack of information, the uncertainty imposed by this pandemic. And then, on the other hand, of course, we have the public health measures that are very much debated, but they’ve isolated the people.”
On UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill talks to physician, trauma expert and author, Gabor Mate, about the isolation, uncertainty and other factors fuelling stress in the pandemic.