Obama’s Surgeon General Says Coronavirus Could Cure the Loneliness Epidemic

Healthy relationships are as essential as vaccines and ventilators for our global recovery

Dr. Vivek Murthy
Forge
Published in
4 min readMay 26, 2020

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Curtisha Bell and her aunt Vicky Blake show progress of their festive surgical masks to friends and family on video chat.
Photo: Santiago Mejia/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images

You may have heard of America’s “loneliness epidemic.” I’m the doctor responsible for coining that phrase.

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Dr. Vivek Murthy
Forge
Writer for

19th Surgeon General of the United States. Dad, Husband, Author of TOGETHER: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World