Prof Patricia Casey. The vaccine delay is the “overarching factor” that has changed people’s attitudes to the lockdown, according to Professor of Psychiatry Patricia Casey.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Professor Casey said the delay is “very distressing for people” and encouraged them to get in touch with their TDs to express how “disgruntled” they are.
“This is the overarching factor that has changed people’s attitude to the whole Covid lockdown now. People were beginning to feel positive that the summer was coming and the vaccine was at least being rolled out,” Prof. Casey said, but then “slowness” and the decision to pause the AstraZeneca vaccine made people “upset, distressed and irate”.
“I wouldn’t want to overplay – this is distress, it’s not major psychiatric illness. I think we’re tending to lose sight of that,” Prof. Casey said.
“It’s the kind of thing we all experience from time to time and we’re understandably experiencing now. Of course, for those with pre-existing mental illness, this could well tip them into perhaps needing additional resources.
“For people who already are mentally ill, the distress caused by the delay…is I think going to upset them and may well trigger them into needing additional supports, be it psychological supports or pharmacological supports. It may well trigger that.”