People are tired of COVID-19. That's according to a recent Marist poll that found only 38 percent of adults in New York state think the COVID-19 pandemic will get better and a similar portion think it’ll get worse. It’s the lowest public morale recorded during the pandemic, and a big change from February, when 69 percent of New Yorkers were hopeful and only 10 percent thought it would get worse.

At the same time, anger is rising around the return of mask requirements for fully inoculated people or vaccine mandates for offices and restaurants. COVID policy keeps changing, and now the government may need the public to unite as it rolls out a new round of booster shots.

Dr. Dominic Packer, a professor of psychology at Lehigh University and the co-author of The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony, joined WNYC's Sean Carlson to discuss how emotional fatigue could affect the public's willingness to take part in the measures needed to beat back the pandemic.