The psychological impact of the coronavirus pandemic
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2020
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What do we know about how we are coping with the pandemic crisis?
David Aaronovitch looks at the impact the three month lockdown has had on people in China and asks how different groups in the UK - just three weeks in - are faring.
What are the particular difficulties faced by the most vulnerable and those who have been advised to self isolate, maybe for many months, during the pandemic?
He asks what strategies can be put in place to reduce mental hardship now and in the coming weeks. And when normality resumes, how changed might we be?
Contributors:
Dr George Hu, Shanghai United Family Pudong Hospital
Helen Westerman, Childline
Prof Bobby Duffy, King's College London
Prof Stephen Reicher, University of St Andrews
Prof Neil Greenberg, King's College London.
Producers: Kirsteen Knight, Darin Graham and Rosamund Jones. Editor: Jasper Corbett.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:04.4 | In the virtual chamber that is the briefing room, you and I have 28 minutes to get to understand a big issue with the help of the top experts on the subject. |
| 0:13.4 | This week, the psychological impact of the coronavirus lockdown. |
| 0:18.4 | Let's go. |
| 0:29.3 | Thank you. coronavirus lockdown. Let's go. Like the first shoots of spring, some European countries are easing a few of their lockdown |
| 0:34.7 | restrictions. In Denmark, kindergartens welcomed their children back. |
| 0:39.3 | Non-food shops open their doors in some parts of Italy. |
| 0:42.3 | In Austria, it's bookshops. |
| 0:44.3 | Not here, though. |
| 0:46.3 | At some point, it'll be our turn, but not yet. |
| 0:50.3 | So I want to know about how the pandemic is affecting us psychologically, |
| 0:55.4 | how long we can cope with lockdown |
| 0:57.3 | and what mental impact the experience will have on us in the long term. |
| 1:02.4 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:10.5 | First to China, where lockdown started in January, lasted three months and has only recently |
| 1:16.0 | been eased. |
| 1:17.7 | China had been here before in a much more limited way during the SARS outbreak of 2002 to 2003. |
| 1:25.5 | Dr George Hu is a clinical psychologist at the United Family Pudong Hospital in Shanghai. |
| 1:31.3 | China experienced a lockdown at the time of the SARS epidemic. What do we know about how people |
| 1:37.7 | came out of that lockdown? The effects range, and particularly the mental health effects range, |
| 1:47.5 | anxiety and fear are very, |
| 1:53.4 | very common effects. Many of your listeners may have heard of PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, |
... |
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