Community has got Britain through the pandemic. How can we create more of it? | Stephen Reicher
Social relationships are key to public health. As the UK recovers from Covid isolation, we must find ways to nurture them
- Stephen Reicher is a member of the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science
Today marks a year since the first lockdown started. The challenges we’ve faced over the past 12 months and the way we have responded to them have taught us some fundamental truths about ourselves and our society.
What makes Covid-19 such a huge challenge is that it thrives on the very thing that makes life worthwhile: intimate human company. In order to avoid getting infected or infecting others, it has been necessary to maintain spatial distance from other people. But in doing so, we have discovered the cost of becoming socially distanced and the pain of isolation. Many of us have learned the hard way that being alone is seriously detrimental to our health.
Stephen Reicher is a member of the Sage subcommittee advising on behavioural science