How our desire for a pre-pandemic world is causing it to last longer

Several countries are facing second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic that are a lot worse than the first. Almost all of these countries could have avoided or at least reduced the severity of the crisis they are facing now. Several warning signs were ignored on either a government, community, or even a personal level.

India is perhaps the worst affected countries by the second wave — over 15 million people are infected and the country is facing a severe Oxygen shortage

Although a lot has been written about failures at the government level, as a psychology student researching decision-making, I want to focus on the community and personal aspects of our crisis response. When the worst of the first wave had been relegated to the rearview mirror, people started attending and organizing weddings, going on vacations, socializing, dining out — largely resuming their everyday lives as they were before 2020; all without getting vaccinated.

Given that humans are a highly risk-averse species — a trait that has ensured our survival over the years — this kind of behavior seems surprising at first. However, if you take a step back and consider how we have responded to other crises of a similar nature, this response does look more typical. Take for example the climate change crisis. There have…