Coronavirus: How to combat pandemic fatigue

When the state premier of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Günther, started setting up his panel of coronavirus experts last year, quite a few of the appointments were no-brainers. Obviously, a leading physician from a lung clinic was the first port of call. The president of the local Kiel Institute for the World Economy think tank was another must, as was a leading clinical psychotherapist.

But Günther was determined to also include somebody with expertise in crisis communications. He already sensed that the almost 3 million residents of the northern German state would only do their bit in the struggle with the virus if the regional government in Kiel explained its measures in a transparent and understandable manner.

Günther enlisted Frank Roselieb. For 20 years he has specialized in crisis training and management, working with the private and public sectors, from major companies to local governments or nonprofits.

"Communication is becoming ever more important as the pandemic progresses," Roselieb says. "That's because the public's pandemic fatigue is becoming all the more apparent and because not every political decision taken was proven to be correct."

Public exhaustion as lockdowns linger

This could be Roselieb's toughest assignment to date. In Schleswig-Holstein and Germany as a whole, seemingly never-ending lockdowns are demoralizing and exhausting the general public. The pandemic blights people, consigning them to the almost impossible balancing act of closed workplaces, working from home, and kids doing distanced learning.

So how would Roselieb, whose mantra is that we're all crisis managers during this pandemic, try to motivate people?

"First of all, you have to point to the silver lining early — to the target that everybody's trying to reach together. For instance, for a teacher, it might be the students' graduation exams in June or the summer holidays in August," he says. "Secondly, clearly and openly acknowledge all the things you do not yet know. And thirdly, nobody expects perfect solutions when taking on extreme risks: So, an occasional 'I'm sorry' might motivate people to persist with the next steps and not to lose hope."

He uses the metaphor of a never-ending football match to try to explain the fatigue. Almost a year into the restrictive phases of the pandemic, people feel as if the first and second halves were long since played, plus extra time, with the teams now locked in a penalty shootout in which the decisive goal refuses to fall.

Germany well set for the restart when time comes

Roselieb supports the idea from several states to set out a performance-based approach to lifting lockdowns, marking out what might reopen when caseloads hit certain targets. He says that will give the pilot a better sense of where landing will be possible once the weather conditions improve. He also defends the idea of different states varying in their implementation of some COVID restrictions, saying it's no different for an array of other issues like the fines for parking offenses or the costs of towing vehicles.

"No past crisis situation — no terror attack, no financial crash, no party donations scandal — has pushed even very experienced top politicians to their limits quite like the coronavirus pandemic," he says, despite also asserting that it's not all doom and gloom: "The entire chains of supply remain intact during pandemics and enable a comparably rapid restart after the crisis. And here in Germany, hardships have been quite well compensated where possible — whether that's in the form of generous furlough payments or free FFP masks for those in most need."

Risk of feeling 'learned helplessness'

German politicians are increasingly concerned by the developments in the rolling COSMO study by the University of Erfurt with help from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health agency, which pays particular attention to the public mood and to skepticism.

"Pandemic fatigue has risen since the start of the second lockdown," read the most recent installment of the study, in late January. "People who are erring towards pandemic fatigue tend to protect themselves and others less and tend to think (incorrectly) that caseloads are continuing to rise anyway. Voluntary compliance is being exhibited more rarely in the second lockdown, especially from young people under 30."

Almost 80% of people in that age group surveyed said they wanted a long-term strategy for opening up after lockdown that was the same for all nationwide.

"I believe that simply carrying on as we have been is no longer tenable," says Ulrich Wagner, professor of social psychology at the Philipps University of Marburg. "Just carrying on is leading more and more to this sensation of learned helplessness, as we psychologists call it. The feeling that whatever we do, nothing changes. And that will lead to resistance and to depression."

Generating 'perceived self-efficacy'

Wagner says that if he were a member of one of the panels advising the government, he would call for a change of strategy. He supports the idea of a plan to ease lockdowns as caseloads drop, saying this could help boost public motivation. He says more emphasis should be placed on offering a tempting carrot besides the driving stick.

"If we can succeed in reducing the case numbers considerably in our hospitals, then we can ease the restrictions. So, if I keep to the rules and make no exceptions, I can do my part towards the situation becoming a little better for all of us," Wagner says. "If we vocally couple the idea of the caseloads and our own personal behavior, that will provide a perceived self-efficacy." (Editor's note: The psychological concept of perceived self-efficacy could be oversimplified as the sense of "being master of your own destiny.") 

However, while Wagner argues for regional variation, he says that the numbers and the standards themselves should be applied consistently nationwide.

"You can use different measures in regions with lower case numbers than regions where they are high. But the principle must be equal and put forward in a unified manner, otherwise credibility is massively impaired."

Trust — hard earned but easily lost

The COSMO polling has tracked reduced support for the government's coronavirus strategy, from roughly 60% to roughly 40% since the start of the pandemic. And winning back that approval could prove far tougher than losing it was for Chancellor Angela Merkel or Health Minister Jens Spahn or others.

"Psychological studies have shown that reputations are built up very slowly but can also be destroyed very rapidly," says Professor Stefan Schulz-Hardt, first vice president of the German Society for Psychology. "Once the trust is gone, you cannot rebuild it overnight."

The German government's vaccination advertising campaign, with a slogan roughly translating as "Germany rolls up its sleeves," is probably the most recent and most noteworthy black mark on the government's credibility. The campaign was designed to boost willingness to be vaccinated in a country with unusually high rates of skepticism by Western standards. Yet for the moment, the government's placards and paid podcast advertisements are serving more as reminders of the stuttering start to the vaccination rollout.

"At its conception, it was a right and proper measure," says Schulz-Hardt. "But in the current situation, it is at best a bit of unintended comedy, or at worst it's a boomerang — and it leaves people shaking their heads."

Unpredictability versus control

Schulz-Hardt, who teaches at the University of Göttingen, also advocates publicly rolling out a strategy for easing lockdown, to give people a sense of control back.

"A perceived sense of control is built on three pillars from a psychological perspective: a sense of being able to explain, foresee and influence the situation. And in all three areas, I'd say there is scope for optimization in Germany." 

That said, optimizing is by no means easy. The psychologist singles out predictability and the ability to see what will come next as the most difficult area of all in the case of a pandemic.

"It's like running a marathon, but when you have no real idea how long the course is or how close to the finish line you are. And that truly is something human beings are very bad at doing, remaining on high alert for such a long period of time."

This article was adapted from German.