Pandemic continues to affect but Americans seems to be over it

The United States on Wednesday surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths but Americans surely seem to be over the masks, the lysol, the Zoom meetings online, the short tempers and long evenings, as well as all other restrictions put in place to ward off the rapid-spreading coronavirus infections.

The Americans have decided to enjoy summers after all, a summer of playing freely at beaches and restaurants, but of living dangerously. One hundred thousand dead, 40.8 million jobless claims. The people in the states are not past it, but over it, according to a report published in The Washington Post.

"We can't keep fighting the virus from our living room," Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, clearly over it, told the Post on Wednesday.

"There is a pent-up demand" to resume normal life, said President Donald Trump, who also seemed to be over it, in the Rose Garden on Tuesday. "And you're going to see it more and more."

"I think everybody is kind of over it, you know what I mean?" says a realtor named Toni Mock, on the phone from Jacksonville, Florida.

Mock wants the same vibrant economy back to normal. One thing that helped her get over it was the "boaters for Trump" flotilla May 16. She hopped in a friend's 40-foot sportfishing boat with some chicken wings and Corona beers (lol) and joined a fleet of vessels in the Intracoastal Waterway. The sun, the breeze, the "Trump 2020" and "Stop the Bulls---" flags, the kayaks, and Jet Skis, the boats dubbed with carefree puns like "Knot to Worry" -- it was "almost biblical," according to Mock.

"It's all a part of getting out there and letting everybody know we're not going to die from this. And what if the coronavirus surges back because we're all over it and having a summer, and we do die from this?" she said.

"I have God in my heart, so God could take me out any day," Mock says. "He can take me out in any way he wants to. And if it's my time to go, it's my time to go. I don't think anyone I know is personally concerned. None of us are afraid, because we have God in our souls and God in our hearts. And we don't watch CNN."

Boaters around Jacksonville are also planning to do another flotilla on June 14, in honour of President Trump's 74th birthday, as states continue to lift shutdown restrictions.

As citywide stay-at-home order in California was lifted on Friday, people got their hair cut done by appointment, get ordered food, and drink outside at restaurants, but the party cannot exceed six people.

Protesters in state capitals have been over the protests for a while. Last weekend a woman in Sacramento was so over it that she held a sign conveying her yearning for movie-theatre popcorn. A man in Lansing was so over it that he held a sign May 14 that said, "I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees." Now the rest of the country is beginning to grant their wishes. Disney World is hoping to begin a phased reopening July 11. In Las Vegas, the Bellagio and MGM Grand will reopen on Thursday.

Reality means grappling with the idea that the coronavirus might stalk people for years, even if scientists come up with a vaccine. Reality means wondering how much more we can take. Who wouldn't want to be over it? The percentage of American adults experiencing depressed moods has doubled during the pandemic, according to an emergency weekly survey, conducted in April by the Census Bureau, cited by the Post. Nearly half of adults in Mississippi reported symptoms of anxiety or depression; no state had a higher percentage.

This makes sense to Michael W. Preston, a marriage and family therapist in Jackson. Preston, whose sessions are exclusively online for now, finds that his patients are frustrated either because others are not taking the pandemic seriously enough, or because they're taking it too seriously.

"There's been a spike not necessarily in anxiety related to COVID, but related to being stuck," Preston says.

( With inputs from ANI )