Obama’s Surgeon General Says Coronavirus Could Cure the Loneliness Epidemic
Healthy relationships are as essential as vaccines and ventilators for our global recovery
You may have heard of America’s “loneliness epidemic.” I’m the doctor responsible for coining that phrase.
After observing isolation as a rising public health calamity during my term as the Surgeon General of the United States, appointed by President Barack Obama, I wrote a book about the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community. What I could not anticipate, however, was the unprecedented test that our global community would face, just as this book was going to press.
The Covid-19 pandemic has turned physical human contact into a potentially mortal threat. Parents like my wife, Alice, and I have canceled our children’s playdates; nursing homes have banned visits to the elderly, who are among those most at risk from this virus; and engaged couples have postponed long-planned wedding celebrations. So much of the socializing that we all took for granted is on hold: concerts, ball games, movies, meals with friends, office banter, and congregational worship.
