After two years of pandemic marked by lockdowns, masks, social distancing, distance learning and smart-working, the contagion map is still a red and purple spotted planisphere, meaning that the health situation is out of control. Despite the vaccination campaign, the statistics document the exponential rise of Covid on a daily basis, which is circulating like never before.
The December holidays have turned dinners and meetings between relatives and friends into a viral catapult which launched the rates of the infection beyond the exorbitant peaks of winter 2020. Only yesterday 220,000 cases were recorded. At the current pace, the coronavirus will spread strongly due to its mutations and in the absence of better calibrated measures and a clearer collective awareness of the dynamics of the contagion, Covid will continue to spread chaos, disease and death
The variants. We now call them “the Delta”, “the Omicron”, with disturbing familiarity. As if bending medical-scientific language to bar speech could mitigate fear or exorcise disaster. Meanwhile, other variants loom with their sinister and dystopian names. For example, Deltacron, a virus discovered in Cyprus that would have arisen from the combination of Delta covid and Omicron covid. And again, here are the “half-sisters of Omicron: the Ihu variant in France and the BA.2, which terrifies Denmark.
Vaccines, masks, restrictions, tampons, green passes, patchy closures, downsizing or suspension of citizens’ mobility remain the only responses to the onslaught of variants. Responses destined for mixed fortunes, given the growing collective intolerance fomented by the economic crisis, the necrosis of the relational and social fabric due to anti-Covid measures and the incessant distribution of fake news on social media.
The Psy variant
More contagious than Delta, there is a variant of Covid that escapes swabs and punctures any vaccination coverage. Even if it is an “immaterial” version of the virus, the Psy variate can impact both the organism and the psyche in the medium and long term and take the form of an extremely contagious bio-psycho-social syndrome, disabling in the short, medium or long term. term and potentially lethal.
The Psy variant affects both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, manifests itself with a procession of undetectable cognitive, emotional and behavioral symptoms, of course, through a molecular test yet found in the clinical setting, especially in patients who did not complain of psychological disorders before the pandemic.
In addition, PSY seems to hit the professionals on the front line against Covid with particular violence: nurses, doctors, oss, teachers and school staff, psychologists and psychotherapists.
Some typical signs of the Psy variant are:
mood dysregulation, with episodes of aggression and / or social withdrawal;
distortion of decision-making processes and polarization of thought;
reduced ability to concentrate, learning and creativity;
fatigue, apathy, loss of pleasure (anhedonia)
significant changes in sleep, appetite and libido.
The Psy variant like Delta and Omicron
Like Covid, it constitutes a greater danger for people with previous physical ailments although it represents a risk for everyone, so the Psy variant can amplify and aggravate the condition of people with psychological difficulties preceding the pandemic, but also establish itself as a new disorder in psychologically healthy and functional individuals of all ages before Covid.
The alarm of the Order of Psychologists
Recently, the Order of Psychologists issued yet another alarm on the serious consequences of the pandemic situation for the mental health of citizens. In fact, requests for psychological support increased by 39%. A frightening percentage, which does not include a multitude of people who, despite needing help, do not know where to turn, or do not have the economic resources to counter the psychological effects of the Psy variant.
In strictly clinical terms, the constellation of symptoms related to the pandemic context is called Covid Distress or Pandemic Fatigue, but I want to talk about the Psy variant to underline the contagiousness of the syndrome and its ability to permeate every level of human functioning: the subject, the couple, the group, society, nations, etc.
The psychological bonus denied
In fact, historically the Italian public health, unfortunately, delegates mental health to private structures, therefore, in the face of the psycho-pandemic that has just begun, the national health system is at least confused. It is no coincidence that the proposed bonus for psychological treatment was amended at the last moment, leaving millions of people perhaps already affected by the Psy variant completely alone.
Now, no health bonuses could offset the urgency of an urgent and massive restructuring of mental health services and psychological well-being in the Covid era.
Against the indifference of politics regarding the impact on mental health, a few days a petition in favor of the Psychologist Bonus was promoted on Change.org, and has already exceeded 300,000 signatures.
Like the biological Coronavirus, the Psy variant appears to be highly contagious between individuals, couples, families, in work groups and in social organizations. It spreads uncertainty, aggression, impulsiveness and feeds loneliness, resignation and cynicism, with inevitable (and imponderable) repercussions on our future. Therefore it is essential to address it through political actions and public health programs, with the involvement of all professionals in the psychological area.