What is the importance of friendship and mental health in pandemics?

Abstract

What is the importance of friendship and mental health in pandemics? Terence j Ryan, from the University of Oxford, explores the importance of friendship and mental health in relation to pandemics and immunity. In the last three years, there has been a significant rise in impaired mental health. Many have asked whether this rise is due to the COVID-19 infection itself or if it is a consequence of how officials managed the pandemic. A close colleague of mine, together running NHS and academic departments without a cross word for fifty years, had suffered from mild dementia and COVID in a care home and, as a result, was isolated from seeing his family and friends for over a year, except through a window. This was during the same period that I was a trustee of Actasia, working to prevent the cruelty and caging of wild animals. It is clear from conducting this work, that such cruelty impairs immunity and resistance and thus increases susceptibility to infection.