On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) received an alert about cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China. A week later, the authorities affirmed that a new strain of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2-virus, was in circulation. Having gained repercussions in media such as Covid-19, the disease had an impact on the global scenario after infecting 774 million people and causing 7 million deaths, until now.
During the pandemic scenario, the world had to face almost two entire years of social isolation, obligatory use of masks and a new lifestyle, while the entire population waited for a solution and to “come back” for normality.
Even though people had to face almost two entire uncertain years, it seems that society forgot the virus’ existence and its damage, since no one worries about prevention or how many people are getting infected.
Until November 2, 2024, Brazil had confirmed more than 780 thousand cases and 5 440 deaths per Covid-19, but the low repercussion of the infections on media and low vaccination coverage shows that indifference predominates over a public health problem.
From the politic DENIALISM to personal denying
In May of 2023, the World Health Organization decreed the end of the Public Health Emergency for Covid-19, but even on the pandemic’s peak many governments had a denialism posture, like Brazil and United States, countries that became a reference in a reckless posture. The presidents during that period were Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump, two figures that spread fake news about the danger and high transmissibility of the virus, in addition to denying the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine.
By attacking public health, making jokes about using masks and investing in the industry of palliative treatments, these politicians contribute to an increase of cases and deaths. From the beginning of 2020 until the end of 2024, Brazil had more than 38 million cases confirmed and more than 700 thousand deaths, while the United States had almost 100 million cases and more than 1.1 million deaths.
The denialism position still presents consequences currently, since the population denies the virus’s existence affirming that there’s no danger if the pandemic is not happening now, from small actions like not using masks when they get sick, to enormous measures such as not getting vaccinated anymore.
The speeches against vaccination prejudices and disinformation contributed to a scenario like seen in Brazil this year, in which the Ministry of Health burned almost 11 million doses of covid’s vaccine, since it exceeded the expiration date because the population didn’t complete the vaccine schedule.
Even though an ideology has been created around Covid-19, many people want to “forget” the pandemic situation, not for political influence, but for personal reasons. People who suffered from the virus, by losing someone or getting mentally sick with social isolation, don’t want to talk about the pandemic anymore, because they consider it too painful.
The effects after those years
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on society since the population still feels the effects of this virus that emerged three years ago. Research shows that areas such as education, public health and politics were affected during this period.
According to UNESCO, more than 1.6 billion students were harmed by the pandemic, since the situation required a long-distance method of learning, and many children and teenagers didn’t have access to the pillar of this system: internet. The principal consequence of online classes is truancy, seeing that the lack of internet left students with a few or non-classes, impacting on scholar development – with drops in grades and commitment with class attendance- and increasing the education inequality around the world.
In parallel with education, the health sector also suffered with changes after Covid-19, since the entire world started investing more in sanitary campaigns, hospital structures and vaccination. Even though authorities turned their attention to vaccine production, the politicization around vaccination – especially in denialist countries that spread fake news about the ineffectiveness of this disease prevention method- contributed to low vaccination coverage, as seen in Brazil where 80% of the population didn’t take the mandatory doses for Covid-19.
Furthermore, the pandemic contributed to the increase of numerous illnesses, like the growth of 20% on cognitive sequelae and memory loss in people who had Covid and the increase of 25% in mental issues – such as burnout, anxiety and depression-, especially on health professionals.
The mental conditions that still seem today emerged with social isolation. The fear of contracting the virus made people develop the habit of staying home and avoiding present reunions, contributing to depression, since becoming more introspective and socializing less are crucial to affect people’s mental health.
Another thing that remains is the culture of fake news. Fake news had a disastrous impact on the virus’s spread, since the disinformation went in the opposite direction of using masks, keeping social distance or taking vaccines, especially in countries with denialism – such as United States and Brazil. But even if this bad tendency had happened, people learned how to identify fake news and differentiate it from real news. Now, many users of social media denounce accounts when they see a lie.
A new health problem: the omission
In mid-August, the World Health Organization emitted an alert affirming that 84 countries had an increase in Covid-19 cases. This scenario shows that even though the pandemic is over, the virus still infects the population and causes many deaths.
In 2020, during the peak of infections and hospitalizations, health departments published epidemiological bulletins while the journals spent 24/7 reporting the uncertain global scenario. In 2024 the situation changed since the media vehicles and the health departments don’t report about Covid anymore, not because the matter is of public interest, but rather people don’t do the tests when they get sick.
With the thought that it could be just a cold or a flu, the population stopped testing themselves, causing an under-notification of positive results. The lack of data showing that the disease is still around and making victims contributes to society thinking it’s all over and there’s no longer danger.
This behavior is responsible for the virus’ silent contagion, causing episodes like those seen in Brazil, in August, when it had an increase of 800% in deaths per Covid, according to the National Council of Health Secretaries.
After these three years the question that remains is if the society thinks it’s already immune and will not be serious in case that they contract the disease, or if the virus’ oblivion was a social and political construction, guided by speeches that don’t follow medical instructions but personal ideologies.
Are we really over?
Even though this turbulent period has passed, society’s lifestyle changed forever and many situations feel like the pandemic’s ghost is surrounding our routine. As said previously, millions of people got infected with Covid-19 and thousands of them feel some after-effects, such as memory problems, headaches, dizziness and shortness of breath, issues that are generally called Long-Covid.
Other consequences can be perceived,such as in the way the population keeps believing in fake news, especially the ones associated with the health sector – for example, vaccine effectiveness and virus circulation. However, most of the damage is noticed in people’s mental health. Social isolation contributed to an increase in the cases of stress, anxiety, depression and burnout, according to the Health Minister of Brazil.
The necessity of social distance helped to avoid contagion during the pandemic but also created a trigger in people when they got out of thir homes. After years since the virus emerged, many people are still afraid of getting sick with Covid-19 – and other contagious diseases- so they stopped hanging out and socializing. Health professionals affirm that living in a group can improve our immune system, by releasing hormones like serotonin and dopamine.
Unfortunately, the sensation of feeling protected behind the screen of a computer or cell phone made society think that it isn’t necessary to have present contact anymore, a thought which can cause depression. Keeping this behavior is responsible for humor and sleep changes, difficulty in communication and in extreme cases, relativize their own health, since getting out of home to visit a doctor could generate contamination with the virus.
This perspective shows that even if there isn’t a Covid-19 pandemic anymore, the entire world is suffering a silent pandemic: of mental disorders. The lack of discussions of mental health it’s proof that society was “prepared” to combat physical diseases, but it’s still not prepared to offer a support network for people who are depressed or anxious.
And, above everything, is contaminated with the individualism ideology to the point of not questioning whether humanity was really born to continue in solitude.
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The article below was edited by Bruna Blanco.
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