MIAMI — The link between loneliness and public health may not be readily apparent to many, but it is to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who visited his Miami hometown Friday with a broad agenda — meeting with health care workers about pandemic-related burnout, speaking with LGBTQ students about mental health concerns, and preparing to deliver the commencement address to graduating students of Miami Dade College on Saturday.
Murthy, a 1994 graduate of Miami Palmetto Senior High School, said in his roles as a private physician and the country’s top doctor he had come to realize, through conversations with patients and everyday Americans, that loneliness and isolation are pervasive among kids, young parents and others whose lives appear to be filled with the presence of others.
“That opened up my mind to the fact that this is a broader crisis,” Murthy said in a meeting with the Miami Herald’s editorial board at Miami Dade College Medical Campus. “As I dug into the research and the data on it, I came to realize that we have more people who struggle with loneliness in our country than have diabetes.”
