Collective amnesia

It feels strange to realise that this month four years ago, we were in the first of what would become three national COVID lockdowns. One reason it feels distant is how rarely the pandemic is mentioned now. When it does appear in the media, it is often in the context of government narratives – COVID, alongside the war in Ukraine, cited as an explanation for ongoing economic difficulties. Updates on infection rates, once a daily fixture, have largely disappeared from public discourse, both here and globally.

Even in everyday life, the shift is visible. On public transport, those who still choose to wear masks now stand out as exceptions. It is a quiet but striking reversal of a time that, not long ago, shaped almost every aspect of daily existence.

It’s as if there’s collective amnesia now about the worse years of the pandemic. And that, in the aftermath of such a seismic global trauma, the pull to want to forget, to move on, can be powerful. And yet, it seems unlikely that the story of COVID is finished. In the years and decades ahead, there will almost certainly be more reflection on its long-term effects, not only on individual lives but on how we understand ourselves within an increasingly fragile and uncertain world.

Despite the stress and challenges involved, many describe their experiences during COVID in largely positive terms. This capacity to reframe and recover speaks to a broader human resilience – an ability to adapt, even in the face of fear and disruption. At the same time, it raises questions about how we process trauma collectively. The familiar responses of fight, flight or freeze may not only operate at an individual level, but also across societies. It is worth asking which of these responses might be most active now.

It is also important not to lose sight of those for whom the pandemic is far from over: individuals living with the ongoing effects of long COVID, and those who continue to grieve loved ones lost during that time. Their experiences sit alongside the wider narrative of recovery, complicating any simple sense of closure.

This is an edited extract from an editorial first published in Private Practice, June 2024, published by BACP©