Impacts of a Worldwide Pandemic

Being locked down and unable to leave your house is detrimental to your mental health and potentially the people around you. Over this past year, we have seen these terrible and even tragic effects firsthand in America that quarantining, and isolation can have on people. It wears us down emotionally and it brings the longing desire for changes that must be made to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. We want someone to blame for the spread of this very contagious disease. These negative consequences stem from travel deprivation and the overall effects of The Stages of the Denial of Travel. When people are deprived of enjoying their lives by traveling to escape work and other stressors, they tend to lash out and point the blame to a source that they think has control of the situation. When people’s satisfaction lowers as they are experiencing the Stages of the Denial of Travel, lashing out and pointing the blame as to why they are being forced to stay in their homes are those negative effects.

A study conducted by Tunisian researchers studied a connection between the domestic abuse of women and quarantining during Covid-19.  This study focused on the effects of how two Tunisian Women delt with being isolated for a period. According to this study, violence against women drastically increased from 4.4% to 14.8%. The study also concludes that this higher rate of the abuse of women is linked to anxiety, depression, and stress because of the lockdowns and people’s inability to leave their houses. Because we are deprived of travel during this Pandemic, our satisfaction and happiness decreases which makes us become angry and depressed. This is a result of the harmful stage of The Stages of Denial of Travel. The Harmful Stage is when we experience the full effects of being deprived of travelling. Anxiety, anger, and stress all begin to develop which causes people to lash out both physically and mentally. In this case, the rate of domestic abuse is increasing because they are angry and tired of staying isolated. When people are like that, they blame others.

Being angry and depressed because of being isolated from the people and the rest of the world. Since Covid-19 came from mainland China; more specifically Wuhan, it is evident that people are becoming Xenophobic towards Asians because of the fear of contracting the disease. An example of such Xenophobia in the United States was when Robert Aaron Long killed six Asian Americans this past month on March 16^th. The mass shootings were at three different spas around the Atlanta area. According to studies done by Angela R. Gover, Shannon B. Harper, and Lynn Langston, there has been a rise of hate crime towards Asian Americans in the United States. This is due to many American’s pointing the blame towards Asians from spreading the Coronavirus. This source also discusses how former President Trump kept calling the virus “the Chinese virus”. Trump provoked Xenophobia towards Chinese and Asian Americans and pointed the blame right to China. His supporters listen to Trump and then go off and commit hate crimes towards Asians. No one in this situation knows who to blame. People are not happy as explained by the Stages of the Deprivation of Travel. To find satisfaction, we listen to anyone that makes us feel any better about the situation. Even if they are right or wrong.

People’s wishes for change are more apparent now that ever before. Just alone in 2020, we have seen riots, social movements, constant protests etc and all during a worldwide Pandemic which isolated people from each other. This year on January 6^th, 2021, pro Trump protesters stormed the capital building in Washington, DC for their hopes to overturn the 2020 election. Something like this has never been seen before in modern US history not since the Civil War. This all connects back to the Coronavirus. Because millions of Americans cannot escape to enjoy themselves and that they are socially distant, they want change. The virus is a “straw the broke the camel’s back” in this situation. Many Trump supporters and Republicans alike were outraged when Donald Trump lost the election. All the anxiety and stress they had to endure that past year pushed many to storm the capital that day. They were tired of sitting idle for so long. Sparking a revolution at the capital was a way to let their feelings all out from months of depression and anger.

Depriving a person of travel and the ability live a normal life has devasting effects on a country’s society. Because people feel trapped in their own homes and are unable to live normally, they take their feelings out on other people. This as a result is why there is a rise of Xenophobia, revolutions, and hate crimes towards Asians. People use Asian Americans as a scapegoat for their terrible lives because they feel like they caused the problem because they are from China. The truth is that we are all to blame for this disease that created misery upon the world.

References

1. Chen, C. (2013). Health and wellness benefits of travel experiences a literature Review. Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258161384_Health_and_Wellness_Benefits_of_Travel_Experiences_A_Literature_Review

• Gover, A., Harper, S., & Langton, L. (2020, July 07). Anti-Asian hate crime during the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring the reproduction of inequality. Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12103-020-09545-1

• Sediri, S., Zgueb, Y., Ouanes, S., Ouali, U., Bourgou, S., Jomli, R., & Nacef, F. (2020, October 17). Women’s mental HEALTH: Acute impact of COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence. Retrieved March 29, 2021, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-020-01082-4

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-020-01082-4