During his tenure as surgeon general, Vivek Murthy was known for his work battling the nation’s opioid crisis, including issuing a 400-page report on addiction and mailing letters to doctors imploring them to join him in fighting the opioid epidemic. After President Donald Trump fired Murthy in April, however, he has focused on a different national crisis: loneliness.
“As prevalent as loneliness is, many people don’t recognize that people that they know may very well be suffering from loneliness,” Murthy told HuffPost. “It’s important for many reasons, one of which is that it has a profound impact on health.”
And while it might seem like a departure, Murthy sees a number of connections between fighting the opioid epidemic and addressing loneliness in the United States.
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