The Stress of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Beyond the Data

BACKGROUND: The year 2020 will go down in modern history as the one ravaged by a pandemic, the one which humbled the entire world. From the richest and most advanced nations to the poorest and least developed ones, it exposed all of our vulnerabilities. The loss of life, health disparities and economic adversities, aggravated by political and ideological tensions, added multiple layers of stress and anxieties to an already stressed American society. METHODS: The educational institutions in the United States from the central to the local units demonstrated coherence in leadership, guided with flexibility and compassion, which paved the way for smooth operations. However, anxiety among students and faculty of university and college campuses is undeniable. In-person instruction was halted. Research labs and offices were locked down or operating with limited personnel. Thus, the challenges to have timely instruction and to move the research enterprise forward have been enormous. Provided here is a perspective based on a literature search using PubMed and Google with search words “COVID-19, stress, college students”, “COVID-19, stress, US graduate students”, and “COVID-19, stress, postdoc researchers”. RESULTS: This article is an opinion piece, part personal and part peer experiences. It is presented in light of studies suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed significant mental stress and anxiety upon students and faculty members within the academy. CONCLUSION: Loss of face-to-face interactions as a result of virtual instructions, lack of in-person mentoring, and loss of research productivity have affected mental health and well-being of the academic community. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the ingenuity of the human spirit has innovated solutions to catch up on research productivity and to pursue academic excellence.