We are only two months in too the new year and we have already had a number of deaths,most recently. Captain Thomas Moore who sadly passed with Covid-19 , he also had pneumonia -
Captain Sir Thomas Moore popularly known as Captain Tom was a British army officer and businessman known for raising money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the Covid-19 pandemic : Moore served in India and the Burma campaign during the second world war and later became an instructor in armoured warfare.after the war, he worked as managing director of a concrete company and was an avid motorcycle racer.
On the morning of Moore's hundredth birthday,the total raised by his walk passed £30 Million and by the time the campaign closed at the end of that day had increased to over 32.79 million ( worth almost £ 39 million with expected tax rebates). His birthday was marked in a number of ways , including flypast by the royal air force and the British army - he passed away February 2nd 2021 at Bedford Hospital where he was taken after being treated for pneumonia and then testing positive for Covid-19.
All of my love , thoughts and condolences go out to all his family .
COVID’s mental-health toll: how scientists are tracking a surge in depression
Researchers are using huge data sets to link changes in mental health to coronavirus-response measures
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, new fast-spreading variants have caused a surge in infections in many countries, and renewed lockdowns. The devastation of the pandemic — millions of deaths, economic strife and unprecedented curbs on social interaction — has already had a marked effect on people’s mental health. Researchers worldwide are investigating the causes and impacts of this stress, and some fear that the deterioration in mental health could linger long after the pandemic has subsided. Ultimately, scientists hope that they can use the mountains of data being collected in studies about mental health to link the impact of particular control measures to changes in people’s well-being, and to inform the management of future pandemics.
The data that emerge from these studies will be huge, says sociologist James Nazroo at the University of Manchester, UK. “This is really ambitious science,” he says.
More than 42% of people surveyed by the US Census Bureau in December reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in December, an increase from 11% the previous year. Data from other surveys suggest that the picture is similar worldwide (see ‘COVID’s mental stress’). “I don’t think this is going to go back to baseline anytime soon,” says clinical psychologist Luana Marques, at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who is monitoring the mental-health impacts of the crisis in US populations and elsewhere.
UK adults reporting symptoms of depression:
July 2019- March 2020 10%
Us adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression
January-June 2019 11%
December 2020 42%
Major events that have shaken societies, such as the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, have left some people with psychological distress for years, says Marques. A study1 of more than 36,000 New York residents and rescue workers revealed that more than 14 years after the attack, 14% still had post-traumatic stress disorder and 15% experienced depression — much higher rates than in comparable populations (5% and 8%, respectively).
Fear and isolation
The distress in the pandemic probably stems from people’s limited social interactions, tensions among families in lockdown together and fear of illness, says psychiatrist Marcella Rietschel at the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.
Studies and surveys conducted so far in the pandemic consistently show that young people, rather than older people, are most vulnerable to increased psychological distress, perhaps because their need for social interactions are stronger. Data also suggest that young women are more vulnerable
