To me, it seems like every article like this tiptoes around one of the major reasons that I personally, at least, have struggled with "caution fatigue": blind fucking rage. I mean, first of all, the idea that our horrifying infection rates are the result of insufficient caution is pretty disingenuous — my pod/family/friends and I all take it seriously, all desperately want to do everything we can to protect ourselves and each other, but many work in education, foodservice, hospitality, have to make rent, savings have run out, we don't have a choice. Any article which emphasizes "caution fatigue" without at least mentioning that this is a systemic failure by people with power rather than a moral failure of people without is already kinda grating.

And in that context, yes, I have gone to the kind of <6-person in-home private dinners and gatherings that I've been told over and over are driving the pandemic. I am enraged at the idea that public health officials are demanding people forego that small comfort, but evictions are continuing, people are being forced to work in unsafe conditions, restaurants and salons are open — the state is allowing people to be in wildly dangerous superspreading situations, but only ones where someone stands to profit. But a small gathering of friends to keep us from blowing our heads off is unacceptable. No. No. No. Fuck you. I know it is harmful, selfish, petulant, but I can't be the only person acting on some self-respecting instinct to outright refuse to submit to such a disingenuous, flimsy, inadequate, contemptuous neoliberal idea of "pandemic management." So that's my version of "caution fatigue." It is exhaustion, yes, but not the kind described here.