Premier Jason Kenney's summer reopening announcement this past week had plenty of Albertans jumping for joy at the thought of being able to travel, play sports, eat in restaurants, and bid adieu to many a makeshift home office.
Certainly, there are many positives to receiving a medical green light to move forward and get back to living life more freely again.
However, medical evidence aside, there is another deeper impact of the pandemic that may take us much longer to recover from.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health, made mention of how we all will handle COVID-19's mental and emotional toll.
"It is my opinion that we need to be as mindful of recovering from the impacts that the last year has had on Albertans' mental health, well-being, and determinants of health, as we are of the direct impacts of COVID-19 infection," she said at a press conference a day after Kenney's hopeful announcement.
With all the misinformation and mixed information of the past 14 months, the coming days, weeks, and months could prove challenging for our minds and emotions to come around – if, indeed, we ever will completely.
Though recovery may vary across the human spectrum, the pandemic's effect on our collective consciousness and how it will shift us culturally, remains to be seen. Its indelible mark will be evident for years to come.
The medical journal The Lancet published an article in 2020 which states that periods of isolation of as little as 10 days can have long-term effects which include psychiatric symptoms for up to three years. Imagine the impact 14 months of isolation can have.
Then, of course, we all must reprogram our brains beyond the messaging during the pandemic that getting close to other people is harmful to our health.
Crawling out from underneath our limited in-person interactions with others is bound to feel unsteady, if not alarming to some – the "what-ifs" tugging at the backs of our minds.
Apprehension will be tucked behind each tentative handshake. Will hugs between friends feel as natural? Will a sneeze or a cough in public stop drawing stares and whispers?
At what point will it feel normal to attend a football game in a packed stadium, or stand shoulder-to-shoulder hollering and cheering at a concert? When will a house party with 20 or 30 people feel safe?
The long-term effects of holding others at more-than-arm's-length for a prolonged period, then its abrupt reversal, will no doubt change who we are. For always.
When will we all feel normal again? The answer is never, at least not the naieve "normal" we felt before COVID changed everything.
The pandemic has had a major effect on our lives. Many have lost homes, jobs, relationships, family members. Business owners have either successfully pivoted or hung on by the fingernails and made it through. Others have literally lost it all.
Teens and children have been in and out and in and out of school, and into prolonged isolation, over and over again.
Let's hope, as we collectively climb out of the health dangers, we also successfully navigate the mental and emotional minefield ahead.
There's another side to the premier's salute to a summer reopening: The psychosocial impact of COVID-19 is as much a public-health crisis as COVID-19 itself, and will require just as much of our government's attention.
Editorials are the consensus of the St. Albert Gazette's editorial board.
