Pandemic Polling

Survey results show that mental health and substance abuse numbers remain high 3 years after COVID’s rude viral entrance. The overall drug overdose death rate had a 50% rise in the U.S. during the pandemic. While this death rate increased in all ethnic and racial groups, the increased rate was greater for people of color. White folks make up the larger portion of deaths due to drug overdose in a year, but the numbers for people of color keep rising. The numbers for 2021 are chilling: American Indian Alaska Natives’ drug overdose deaths were 56.6 per 100,000, while Black people had 44.2 per 100,000 and White people had 36.8 per 100,000.   

According to CNN/KFF polling (October, 2022), 90% of U.S. adults say mental health is in a crisis in the United States. KFF or Kaiser Family Foundation (endowed initially by industrialist Henry J Kaiser) is a non-profit health information organization that has interest in global as well as national health. In addition to the stark increase in drug overdoses, other mental health concerns reported by participants were loneliness, job loss, financial instability, sickness, and grief.     

The Pew Research Center reports that 89% of Americans cited at least one negative change in their lives during the pandemic, while 73% listed at least one unexpected positive; 67% experienced both negative and (at least one) positive change as the pandemic gripped the nation. Women were more likely to report negative consequences than men, with the single-most reported negative outcome relating to belonging — people missed family/friend connections.  

A research team studying 7,000+ U.S. adults published their results in December, 2022, in PLoS ONEon personality changes during the pandemic. They had a ready population for study in their longitudinal monitoring of “Big Five” personality traits since 2014. There did not appear to be significant changes in personality through the start of the pandemic. However, as the COVID fallout just kept rolling into 2021-2022, personality changes emerged:

• “Extraversion: We became less likely to seek out company and enjoy time with others;
• Openness: We lost capacity to seek out novelty and engage with new ideas;
• Agreeableness: Sympathy and kindness declined, affecting our ability to get along with others;
• Conscientiousness: We became less motivated to pursue goals and accept responsibilities.
• Neuroticism: The sharpest decline occurred in younger adults during the pandemic; they became more angry, anxious, irritable, and depressed.”

While some thrived during the pandemic, many others did not. Since the “worst” pandemic death strikes (before vaccines were available), our global world has entered two war crises. There have been more U.S. mass shooting tragedies than days in 2023. We have polling numbers, but what about solutions to underlying problems?

One take-away message is that we cannot escape change. Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw said it best: “Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. “

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

233. How are you changing your mind in pandemic times?

234. Where are unexpected positives today?