Yes, pandemic fatigue is an issue, experts say. Will Omicron make it worse?

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney recently said that, despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant across the country, Canadians may be at their "outer limits" of what further public-health restrictions they're willing to accept.

"Widespread non-compliance," he told the National Post, was harming the credibility of public-health measures and that many Albertans "have just tuned us out."

That tune-out is part of what's described as "pandemic fatigue" — the weariness among some people to abide by more coronavirus-related restrictions and public health measures as the pandemic drags on. 

But some experts say it's still unclear what role that fatigue might play in people ignoring the new round of restrictions being implemented against Omicron.

"It remains to be seen," said Jason Harley, an assistant professor in the department of surgery at McGill University in Montreal, whose research focuses on psychological well-being and education.

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"I think it could differ by people. Psychology is a big kind of tricky field because there's so much variation between individuals."

What makes pandemic fatigue so challenging "are all the psychological aspects to it," they said.

"Those are things that we need to be really attentive to," Harley said. "To have to hear the word 'restriction' again — that's nearly a trigger word. And we know when it comes to emotions that emotions can really get in the way of processing information and tending to information properly."

As early as May 2020, before the introduction of vaccines and just a half a year into the lockdowns, the World Health Organization (WHO) was warning that member states across Europe were reporting emerging pandemic fatigue in their populations "that poses a serious threat to efforts to control the spread of the virus."

"The perceived threat of the virus may decrease as people become used to its existence," WHO wrote in a report. 

Steven Taylor, a psychiatry professor at the University of British Columbia and author of The Psychology of Pandemics, says his research has found that, while people have become increasingly distressed over 2020 and 2021, most are adhering to pandemic restrictions.

"But there's this growing minority of people who are saying that they're done with it and are increasingly not adhering to guidelines," he said. 

"So I think Premier Kenney has a point."