Is this COVID-19 news?
If it is COVID-19 related why?
If it is COVID-19 related, is it because so many people, about 1 in 8 Americans, got COVID and suffered ill effects of the illness? Is it because of the incredibly high rate of post infection psychiatric diagnosis
(1 in 3 at months, 1 in 6 new dx) either due to direct neuropsychiatric effects of the virus of fallout from other long term effects of the virus or second order effects like the suffering of long COVID? Is it because a lot of people lost someone or they suffered greatly, around 1 in 150 Americans was hospitalized for COVID and 1 in 500 Americans are dead from COVID, so almost everyone has only 1 or 2 degrees of separation from a COVID death? Grief and loss are powerful and not contained to immediate family.
Is it because of the division and polarization of society and the news and social media fear/outrage/anxiety cycles and echochambers over all of this? Perhaps the knowledge that it isn't over yet and fear of the future?
Is it related to all the public health restrictions that occurred a 1+ years ago and the second/third order social/economic effects?
Or is it due to all of the other things already occurring in our changing and polarized contentious society, or the fact that housing seems out of reach permanently to many gen Zers who would have had hope to purchase a home based on their station and course in life were they in a previous generation? Fears of the future with automation and Chinese competition? Or social media induced FOMO? Trips got cancelled? Wedding delayed? Couldn't get the latest iPhone? Etc...
I'm a Millennial (the generation previously known as Y) for the record. COVID has been my primary job focus for 18 months. I suffered stress, great stress at times. But now I'm in the best shape of my life and I lost weight.