Surgeon General Warns Of Dangers From Loneliness After Years Of COVID Panic

U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy has finally figured out that years of COVID-related panic has had unbelievably negative consequences.

COVID lockdowns, school closures and forced social isolation were bad for society, turns out.

The Washington Post reported that Murthy said Tuesday that “widespread loneliness” is as dangerous as “smoking a dozen cigarettes daily.”

According to Murthy, loneliness has become such a prevalent problem in American society that it’s worthy of being described as a public health epidemic.

Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, during an interview on an episode of Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Murthy said the mental health crisis is the biggest concern facing the country because it impacts so many people and different facets of life. Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Loneliness and isolation are extremely serious issues, and have become increasingly problematic over the past few years.

"We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It's like hunger or thirst. It's a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing," Murthy said to The Associated Press. "Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that's not right. That's why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing."

There’s just one problem with this declaration.

Murthy’s allies in the “expert” class unquestionably made it substantially worse with their COVID advocacy.

COVID Lockdowns Exacerbated Problems That Murthy Ignored

The Post reported that loneliness is hitting youngest people the hardest.

“The loneliness epidemic is hitting young people, ages 15 to 24, especially hard. The age group reported a 70% drop in time spent with friends during the same period.”

Naturally, they ignore that many outside of Murthy’s preferred expert class warned of this exact scenario years ago.

School closures were an unmitigated disaster. Just as many predicted while COVID lockdowns proliferated.

Closures were entirely ineffective at reducing disease transmission, but extremely successful at setting children back in school.

READ: SCHOOL CLOSURES RESULTED IN HALF OF AMERICA’S STUDENTS FALLING BEHIND AN ENTIRE YEAR

Isolating young people who rely on friend groups also inarguably contributed to the loneliness epidemic.

Not to mention the adults who were terrified by endless pronouncements of doom and fear on Gering from people like Dr. Fauci.

Now Murthy is worried about the consequences of the very policies his allies demanded.

Who could have predicted this? Except anyone willing to be intellectually honest about the tradeoffs of lockdown policies.

Had Murthy or anyone on the COVID task force listened to the concerns of other experts like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, this new epidemic may have been avoided or lessened.

Instead, they clung to partisan demands and head in the sand ignorance. Having the audacity to warn about the consequences of their actions is as infuriating as it is arrogant.

COVID exposed experts as being entirely unable to balance risks and benefits. And in the process, their advice led to policies that had no benefits and tremendous risks.

And now those who lit the match are warning about the risk of fire to the house they already burned down. Nothing more perfectly “expert” than that.