Good morning.
We are used to seeing the Surgeon General of the United States take on tough public health challenges like cigarette smoking or opioid abuse. But Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, now on his second tour in the job, has chosen a less orthodox target: loneliness. Speaking at Fortune Brainstorm Health yesterday, he had this to say:
“It turns out loneliness is a public health issue. And I would say it has risen to the level of being a public health crisis. It’s an experience that we all have from time to time, but when it’s persistent, or when it’s extreme, it can actually come with significant health risks. We all know that loneliness is associated with increased risk of anxiety and depression and suicide, but it’s also associated with an increased risk of heart disease and premature death, as well as dementia. And when you actually look at the risk of premature death related to loneliness, it’s comparable to the increased risk of premature death due to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and it is greater than the risk associated with obesity…And it’s extraordinarily common. Around one in two Americans are experiencing loneliness.”
Murthy said employers have an important role to play in combatting this crisis, since they account for such an important part of peoples’ social interaction.
“This is important not only for workers, but for businesses as well, because it turns out when people feel a greater sense of connection to each other in the workplace, it positively impacts their creativity, their productivity, and actually their engagement in the workplace, which has downstream impacts on retention.”
I asked Murthy whether he had chosen to focus on loneliness because it is one of the very few issues that hasn’t—yet—been subject to intense political polarization. His response:
“In my view, rebuilding social connection and community is at the heart of what we need to do to address polarization. Because I'll tell you one thing, it's hard to hate people up close. We need to rebuild those relationships for the sake of individual health but also societal health.”
You can find more from the conference on Fortune Well, including this story on how the pandemic intensified the mental health crisis. Other news below. And check out Sheryl Estrada’s story for Fortune on the 116 stocks that may be vulnerable to activist attacks.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
