Is there a vaccine against fear? Introducing Fear of Going Out!

When the face mask obligation was lifted, five or six weeks ago, I wasn't thrilled, and I didn't understand. After all, the number of positive cases was still rather high. More than 1,000 new cases per day. Such numbers would have completely freaked us out two years ago.

But now there is 'Covid-light', in the shape of Omicron, and we have access to vaccines, so apparently, we shrug our shoulders more and more and let go of anxiety. We decided that, despite the numbers, we are good to go. Life is switched on again and we're grabbing it by the horns.

Well, not me.

Forget FOMO, I am introducing FOGO: fear of going out. Even though I so badly want to join in all the celebrations that give us the extra 'umph' in life, I remain on the sidelines and wait. Because of FOGO.

Picking up life again

It's like the technology adoption model that is used in marketing. It is a curve. Starting low, with the innovators, who come up with new ideas. Immediately followed by early adopters the curve moves upward. Then you get the early majority and the late majority where almost everyone has joined. Except for the laggards. They are the last 16% of the curve. It’s those that wait until something is basically already outdated before they try or buy. When it comes to picking up life again where we left off before Covid, I am definitely a laggard.

Maybe it's because I got Covid. Yessiree. My family and I lived like hermits and swore off all human contact during the first year of the pandemic. We eased up the second year but remained careful. We were tested, vaccinated, and boostered and never even so much as sneezed during the first two years of Covid. We always wore face masks. We disinfected our hands. We didn't hug. We didn't meet up with friends. I mean really vigilant. But the minute we were allowed to take off our face masks in public, which we didn't even do, by the way, we got Covid.

Luckily for us, it wasn't a bad case of Covid, so we were not seriously ill. We were lucky. But we've also seen and heard enough to know that not everyone is that lucky and that a second time around, the illness might progress entirely differently.

Just the other day, we met a lady whose 54-year-old husband died of Covid in February. He had an underlying health issue that he didn't know about. Diabetes. But he had never had any complaints, nor any symptoms.

So, what are we to do? Have we checked out thoroughly on every possible underlying health issue, even though we don’t have any reason to doubt our health? It would be unaffordable if everyone would do that. Plus, it's hardly living if all you're doing is being worried about getting sick.

Just go with it

What remains is to 'just go with it'. Heck, before Covid I was never thinking about my health other than wanting to eat healthily and exercise. But nothing existentially. It has changed. My innocence (if that’s a word you can use when you're middle-aged…) is gone. And it bothers me. Because I want to be able to pick up our lives as we were living them before the pandemic.

I want to hug my friends. I want closeness. I hate the stupid 'elbow-shake'. I want to go out and dance again. I want to dress up and go to parties.

I see video reels of friends on social media, partying like there is no tomorrow, dancing in crowded places.

I see it all and a part of me wants to be right there, in the middle of it. But another part of me is frightened. I'm experiencing FOGO and hope that I will be able to feel just as free and happy as before the pandemic. Is there a vaccine against fear? If so, I'm taking it. And the booster!