Typically, in moments of stress, we reach out to people. The irony is that this is happening during a time of extraordinary stress, when our lives are turned upside down. In the age of COVID-19, I’m worried that loneliness could deepen further, that we could see the physical distancing that we’re asked to observe translate into social distancing as we feel more and more disconnected from the people we need in our lives. Long before the pandemic hit, I was deeply concerned about loneliness. A condensed and edited version of Murthy’s remarks follows. He is also the author of the book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World (Harper Wave, 2020). Murthy is the cofounder of several organizations, including TrialNetworks, a software-technology company, and Doctors for America, a group of more 18,000 physicians and medical students supporting high-quality and affordable care for all. He issues a call to action for high-quality healthcare in flexible settings and warns against losing the improvements the pandemic has spurred. In a conversation with McKinsey’s Pooja Kumar on May 8, 2020, Murthy discusses his concerns about a “social recession” stemming from the COVID-19 crisis. Murthy, MD, created initiatives to tackle the country’s most urgent public-health issues, including the Ebola and Zika viruses, obesity, mental health, and the opioid crisis. As US surgeon general from 2014 to 2017, Vivek H.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |