{"id":139223,"date":"2020-12-21T22:40:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T19:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/virus-weary-americans-less-festive-this-year\/"},"modified":"2020-12-21T22:40:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T19:40:19","slug":"virus-weary-americans-less-festive-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/virus-weary-americans-less-festive-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"#Virus-weary Americans less festive this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Virus-weary Americans less festive this year<\/strong>”
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WASHINGTON \u2014 Maureen Brennan will spend Christmas with her daughter at their Nashua, New Hampshire, home after declining invitations from other relatives to celebrate with them. Michael Smith will mark the holidays alone in Elko, Nevada, unwilling to risk being infected with the coronavirus before he can be vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Neither feels overly festive this holiday season, reflecting the mood of many Americans as a year marred by a national health crisis and teetering economy ends with the coronavirus pandemic still raging out of control. That\u2019s according to a survey from\u00a0The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>\u00a0that also finds some Americans are feeling a bit sadder, lonelier and less grateful than last year.<\/p>\n

Smith, 69, said he usually spends Christmas alone, but the pandemic has been especially difficult because he likes to frequent local coffee shops and chat with friends and neighbors. The Caribbean cruise he looks forward to every year, which would have set sail on Jan. 3, was canceled.<\/p>\n

So he\u2019s mostly been staying home, fearful of what could happ<\/a>en if he contracted the virus, because of a monthlong hospitalization for pneumonia five years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stressed that I can\u2019t just get in my car and go someplace,\u201d said Smith, who fills his time by puttering on his tractor and doing chores around his property.<\/p>\n

Just 22% of Americans say they feel very or extremely festive this year, down from 49% one year ago. Those who do feel festive tend to be those least worried about the virus.<\/p>\n

Holidays are always a stressful time, \u201cbut now people are feeling really, really worn down because this has been going on for so long,\u201d said Dr. Karestan Koenen, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. \u201cSome people are suffering financially, and stimulus checks are running out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic \u2014 which has driven health care systems to the brink, thrown millions out of work and killed more than 310,000 in the U.S. \u2014 is casting a long shadow, with research showing that it has\u00a0taken a toll on Americans\u2019 mental health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About 4 in 10 Americans are\u00a0still intensely worried<\/a>\u00a0that they or a family member will be infected, with roughly three-quarters at least somewhat concerned. The\u00a0coronavirus vaccine has capped the year with a glimmer of hope<\/a>, but the poll found only about half of Americans are ready to get vaccinated immedia<\/a>tely, with the rest unsure or uninterested. The poll was conducted shortly before the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for emergency use.<\/p>\n

Overall, half of Americans say they\u2019re at least somewhat lonely this holiday season, up from 41% last year. Fifty-two percent say they\u2019re at least somewhat sad, compared to 44% last year.<\/p>\n

Adults under 30 are more likely than those older to say they feel very sad or lonely \u2014 and more feel these emotions this year than they did last year.<\/p>\n

Koenen said this is a time that\u00a0young adults normally would be starting their independent lives<\/a>. But now, graduation ceremonies may have been canceled, they may be forced to live with their families and it could be difficult to find a job because of the slowed economy.<\/p>\n

For those who live alone, it\u2019s \u201creally hard right now (because) you\u2019re literally alone all the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Brennan, who\u2019s 76, said she\u2019s lucky to have the companionship of her adult daughter, and hadn\u2019t worried much about the virus until the number of infections and deaths began climbing in recent weeks. She and her daughter have been careful, wearing masks and patronizing the same stores to minimize potential exposure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when figures started ramping up again \u2026 I could feel a sense of foreboding, especially watching what\u2019s going on around (town) with the lack of stringency and the lack of mask-wearing,\u201d said Brennan, a retired health care worker, who said she\u2019s stocked up on baked goods and other favorites to ride out the holidays at home.<\/p>\n

Both Brennan, whose husband died five years ago, and Smith said they have found satisfaction in helping others, rather than dwelling on what they cannot do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to take care of those who absolutely need it and those who need only on a temporary basis,\u201d said Brennan, who has donated to Nashua\u2019s soup kitchen and children\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

Smith said he helped a couple of families, including a server at a coffee shop he frequents, who were struggling because of lost wages during the pandemic. Come January, he\u2019ll donate to the local food bank.<\/p>\n

Still, just 37% of Americans say they feel especially generous, compared with 52% last year.<\/p>\n

Americans are also less likely to say they feel very grateful, though a 60% majority still say so, down from 73% a year ago.<\/p>\n

Last year, similar majorities across ages and races said they were grateful. Now older Americans and Black Americans are especially likely to say they are. Koenen said it could be a reflection of their experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they\u2019re grateful that they\u2019re still here and also perhaps longer life gives one perspective,\u201d Koenen said. \u201cWe do know gratitude increases resilience and mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focusing on gratitude can help reduce anxiety, as can finding ways to help others, Koenen said. \u201cSo many felt helpless \u2026 but I think people feel better if they can do something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Brennan said she\u2019s chosen to focus on positive things, keeps up with what\u2019s happening in her community and stays in contact with friends, even though they can\u2019t visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it is attitude,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be very realistic about this, but it\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Smith is feeling more hopeful now that coronavirus vaccines have been approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to (the time) when most of us will have had the vaccination,\u201d he said. \u201cThen we should be coming back to life.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Virus-weary Americans less festive this year” WASHINGTON \u2014 Maureen Brennan will spend Christmas with her daughter at their Nashua, New Hampshire, home after declining invitations from other relatives to celebrate with them. Michael Smith will mark the holidays alone in Elko, Nevada, unwilling to risk being infected with the coronavirus before he can be vaccinated….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/12\/virus-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[87288,1545,68,9724],"class_list":["post-139223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-12-21-20","tag-coronavirus","tag-holidays","tag-study-says"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}