Thursday, December 7, 2023
ISSN 2765-8767
  • Survey
  • Podcast
  • Write for Us
Daily Remedy
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
    A conversation with Dr. Lewis, a Pain Specialist who has seen it all

    A conversation with Dr. Lewis, a Pain Specialist who has seen it all

    December 5, 2023
    A follow-on conversation with Drs. Lawhern & Nadeau, delving deeper into opioid mortality statistics

    A follow-on conversation with Drs. Lawhern & Nadeau, delving deeper into opioid mortality statistics

    December 3, 2023
    Joseph Parker

    A conversation with Dr. Parker, a model of physician advocacy

    December 2, 2023
    Dr. Amesh Adalja Discusses Flu Season and Trends in 2024

    Dr. Amesh Adalja Discusses Flu Season and Trends in 2024

    November 25, 2023
    Drs. Lawhern and Nadeau Explain Overdose Mortality Data

    Drs. Lawhern and Nadeau Explain Overdose Mortality Data

    November 23, 2023
    A conversation with Dr. Gavin Francis

    A conversation with Dr. Gavin Francis

    November 20, 2023
  • Surveys

    Surveys

    Should guided yoga and breathing exercise (pranayama) classes be covered by your health insurance?

    Should guided yoga and breathing exercise (pranayama) classes be covered by your health insurance?

    November 29, 2023
    How often do you distrust healthcare news

    How often do you distrust healthcare news?

    October 30, 2023

    Survey Results

    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    October 16, 2022
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Support Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
    A conversation with Dr. Lewis, a Pain Specialist who has seen it all

    A conversation with Dr. Lewis, a Pain Specialist who has seen it all

    December 5, 2023
    A follow-on conversation with Drs. Lawhern & Nadeau, delving deeper into opioid mortality statistics

    A follow-on conversation with Drs. Lawhern & Nadeau, delving deeper into opioid mortality statistics

    December 3, 2023
    Joseph Parker

    A conversation with Dr. Parker, a model of physician advocacy

    December 2, 2023
    Dr. Amesh Adalja Discusses Flu Season and Trends in 2024

    Dr. Amesh Adalja Discusses Flu Season and Trends in 2024

    November 25, 2023
    Drs. Lawhern and Nadeau Explain Overdose Mortality Data

    Drs. Lawhern and Nadeau Explain Overdose Mortality Data

    November 23, 2023
    A conversation with Dr. Gavin Francis

    A conversation with Dr. Gavin Francis

    November 20, 2023
  • Surveys

    Surveys

    Should guided yoga and breathing exercise (pranayama) classes be covered by your health insurance?

    Should guided yoga and breathing exercise (pranayama) classes be covered by your health insurance?

    November 29, 2023
    How often do you distrust healthcare news

    How often do you distrust healthcare news?

    October 30, 2023

    Survey Results

    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    How strongly do you believe that you can tell when your provider does not trust you?

    October 16, 2022
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Support Us
No Result
View All Result
Daily Remedy
No Result
View All Result
Home Uncertainty & Complexity

Confronting COVID Senioritis

Jay K Joshi by Jay K Joshi
September 6, 2022
in Uncertainty & Complexity
0
Confronting COVID Senioritis

We call it senioritis, but it is actually a broader condition that affects most of us in our lives. Psychologists call it Drive Reduction Theory.

It is based on the idea that the motivation underlying human behavior is to reduce “drives”, a state of arousal or discomfort triggered by basic needs. According to the theory, when a drive emerges, the ensuing state of tension causes a person to react in a way that reduces it. When we feel hungry, we are motivated to eat.

Once we satisfy this drive, we feel a sense of balance, or homeostasis. For most biological needs, the response is simple and predictable. For complex biological processes, like a viral pandemic, the responses can be multi-factorial and complex. But the underlying response to the driver remains the same – regain a balance.

In the early days of the pandemic, many felt an immense sense of existential despair and loneliness. This resulted in an alarmingly high number of suicides and drug overdoses. Others felt a sense of angst and disillusionment. This manifested as mistrust in the healthcare system and in health policy leaders.

But thankfully, many responded by finding solutions to curb the pandemic’s carnage. This led to the novel mRNA vaccines and an improved understanding of viral epidemiology.

Now that we are past the acute phase of the pandemic, we have a different driver. Previously, we sought ways to cope with the acute stress of COVID. Now, we have settled into a sense of false assurance. We are comfortably numb living in a world where the pandemic rages on as a persistent simmer. For many, homeostasis is in ignoring it all.

We like to believe we are close to achieving some closure with COVID. That the virus, “we will learn to live with”, will assume normalcy relative to what we understand normal to mean in this day and age.

This cannot be further from the truth. We respond to the environment. The environment does not respond to us. We seem to have forgotten this in our current age, but it is a painful reality that beset humanity throughout its history.

Humanity survived because it learned to adapt. Adaption comes from observing and responding to the environment, which is a far cry from the learned apathy many have developed about the pandemic.

For us to respond appropriately to the pandemic, we must acknowledge that actively responding is important. This starts with motivation, which is particularly important in healthcare. When we lack the motivation to maintain our health, we fall prey to chronic diseases. When healthcare workers lose their motivation, health outcomes worsen. The effects are cumulative because so much of healthcare relates in some way.

This is why we see less COVID testing alongside a decrease in concern for the pandemic. The public is suffering from COVID fatigue and the response is feigned ignorance. So though we see a decrease in COVID cases, we do not know whether it is a true decrease in viral spread or simply a decrease in what the data shows.

We see people walking around maskless, congregating in large groups, and resuming a pre-COVID lifestyle. We like to think the pandemic is over. But we do not know. Our primary impulse at the moment is to just wish it away, because that is the quickest path to a perceived homeostasis.

This is a false balance. It relies on erroneous assumptions and leads to a misguided sense of comfort. What we need, now more than ever, is a true balance, a well-grounded understanding of the current pandemic realities. Yes, a pandemic is still among us. It may not be raging, but it is sizzling. And that presents with its own set of risks, albeit not as severe as before.

So rather than dismiss the pandemic entirely, we must understand that a small risk is still a risk and avoid the tendency of dividing things into all or nothing. Either we are stuck in a life threatening pandemic set to destroy humankind or it is all a hoax. In this state of extremism, we naturally gravitate toward convenient solutions, which are nothing more than fool’s gold, a false balance.

To achieve a true balance, to truly satisfy the drivers that emerged out of the pandemic, we need a balanced understanding of the pandemic.

ShareTweet
Jay K Joshi

Jay K Joshi

Dr. Jay K Joshi serves as the editor-in-chief of Daily Remedy. He is a serial entrepreneur and sought after thought-leader for matters related to healthcare innovation and medical jurisprudence. He has published articles on a variety of healthcare topics in both peer-reviewed journals and trade publications. His legal writings include amicus curiae briefs prepared for prominent federal healthcare cases.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Videos

Dr. Adalja shares his thoughts on the current flu season and future trends in viral infectious diseases. He talks about vaccine misinformation and what he expects to see in 2024.

Dr. Adalja is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an Affiliate of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity.

https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/who-we-are/our-people/amesh-adalja-md-fidsa

Twitter: @AmeshAA

Instagram: @ameshadalja


#COVID #RSV #influenza #misinformation #disinformation #vaccines #trust
Dr. Amesh Adalja Discusses Flu Season and Trends in 2024
YouTube Video rSipAzS4d90
Subscribe

How does Congress learn about health issues?

Visuals

A Two Headed Monster - State Attorneys General and the Drug Enforcement Agency

DEA driven production cuts of prescription opioids

by Jay K Joshi
November 15, 2023
0

We highlight a figure from patient advocate, Monty Goddard's article, A Two Headed Monster – State Attorneys General and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Read more

Twitter Updates

Tweets by DailyRemedy1

Newsletter

Start your Daily Remedy journey

Cultivate your knowledge of current healthcare events and ensure you receive the most accurate, insightful healthcare news and editorials.

*we hate spam as much as you do

Popular

  • Unraveling How Patients Lose Credibility with Their Physicians

    Unraveling How Patients Lose Credibility with Their Physicians

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A Call to Action for Pain Patients and Advocates

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A Two Headed Monster – State Attorneys General and the Drug Enforcement Agency

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Focusing on the Jury Instruction on Drug Conspiracy at My Trial

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Healthcare is Health Justice

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 628 Followers

Daily Remedy

Daily Remedy offers the best in healthcare information and healthcare editorial content. We take pride in consistently delivering only the highest quality of insight and analysis to ensure our audience is well-informed about current healthcare topics - beyond the traditional headlines.

Daily Remedy website services, content, and products are for informational purposes only. We do not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All rights reserved.

Important Links

  • Support Us
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Newsletter

Start your Daily Remedy journey

Cultivate your knowledge of current healthcare events and ensure you receive the most accurate, insightful healthcare news and editorials.

*we hate spam as much as you do

  • Survey
  • Podcast
  • About Us
  • Contact us

© 2023 Daily Remedy

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Podcasts
  • Surveys
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Support Us

© 2023 Daily Remedy

Start your Daily Remedy journey

Cultivate your knowledge of current healthcare events and ensure you receive the most accurate, insightful healthcare news and editorials.

*we hate spam as much as you do