We’re Living Through the ‘Boring Apocalypse’

为什么许多人对新冠已经不再恐惧？

It could have been a scene straight out of an apocalyptic horror movie. When the World Health Organization declared the Omicron variant of the coronavirus a “variant of concern” in late November, borders closed, markets tumbled and warnings spread about how this new threat could ravage the world’s population.

11月下旬，世界卫生组织宣布新冠病毒奥密克戎变异株为“需要关注的变异株”时，边境关闭，股市暴跌，有关这种新威胁将如何在全世界肆虐的警告传播开来。这本该是一个末世恐怖片的场景。

And then … many of us went right back to whatever we were doing. In a poll of Americans conducted from Dec. 3 to Dec. 6, almost all — 94 percent — had heard of Omicron. Despite questions that remain unanswered about Omicron’s risks and whether it can evade vaccines, only 23 percent said they were likely to cancel their holiday plans, and 28 percent said they were likely to stop gathering with others outside their households.

然后……我们中的许多人照旧进行着自己的生活。在12月3日至12月6日对美国人进行的一项民意调查中，几乎所有人——94%——都听说过奥密克戎。尽管关于奥密克戎的风险以及疫苗是否对它无效的问题仍未得到解答，但只有23%的人表示他们可能会取消假期计划，28%的人表示他们可能会停止与家人以外的其他人聚会。

It’s a stark difference from when the pandemic started. Back then, as we learned of this new highly contagious and deadly disease with no vaccine or treatment, many of us stocked up on food and toilet paper, started wiping down our groceries and went into lockdown, venturing out only with protective gear.

这与大流行开始时的情形截然不同。那时，当我们了解到这种没有疫苗或治疗方法的新疾病具有高度传染性和致命性时，许多人囤积了食物和卫生纸，开始擦拭买来的东西，并进入封锁状态，出门一定会穿戴防护装备。

But many people aren’t so afraid of Covid-19 anymore, complicating public health authorities’ efforts to slow Omicron’s spread. We’ve all seen this horror movie before, and when you’ve watched the killer jump out brandishing a weapon 10 times — even when you’ve watched him kill — it just doesn’t freak you out the same way. The same rerun has been playing for 21 months. We’re living through a phenomenon that risk experts might call a boring apocalypse.

但是许多人不再那么害怕新冠，这使公共卫生当局减缓奥密克戎传播的努力变得复杂。这样的恐怖电影我们以前都看过，当你第十次看到杀人者挥舞着武器跳出来时——即使你看过他杀人——就不会像以前那样吓到你了。同一部影片已经重播了21个月。我们正在经历一种现象，风险专家称之为“令人倦怠的大灾难”。

The seemingly constant flow of emergency alerts has dulled many people’s fear response to this pandemic, leading them to let down their guard, relax their restrictions and masking habits or even refuse potentially lifesaving vaccines. Why? We’ve basically all been through one of the best available therapies for extinguishing extreme fear.

紧急警报仿佛接连不断，削弱了许多人对这种流行病的恐惧反应，导致他们放下警惕，放松限制和戴口罩的习惯，甚至拒绝接种可能挽救生命的疫苗。为什么会这样呢？我们基本上都经历了一遍消除极度恐惧的最佳治疗。

If you have a fear of spiders, the mere sight of a bug with eight legs activates your amygdala — a vital part of your brain’s threat detection system. The amygdala acts as a safety siren that immediately drowns out all the other noise in your head and propels you to take rapid protective action: fight, flight or freeze.