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1/ What do you think the IFR of social isolation is?
Below is a table detailing the factors most important in reducing your chances of dying, based on Julianne Holt-Lunstad's comprehensive study.
See the fascinating talk on this by Susan Pinker here:
Below is a table detailing the factors most important in reducing your chances of dying, based on Julianne Holt-Lunstad's comprehensive study.
See the fascinating talk on this by Susan Pinker here:
2/ Forget about weight, exercise, clean air or even heart rehab. Social interaction is the number one predictor of longer life with close relationships close behind.
3/ What does social interaction mean exactly?
As Pinker explains:
"This means how much you interact with people as you move through your day. How many people do you talk to? Do you talk to the guy who everyday makes you your coffee?"
As Pinker explains:
"This means how much you interact with people as you move through your day. How many people do you talk to? Do you talk to the guy who everyday makes you your coffee?"
4/ "Do you talk to the postman? Do you talk to the woman who walks by your house everyday with her dog? Do you play bridge or poker or have a book club? Those interactions are one of the strongest predictors of how long you’ll live."
5/ This affects dementia as well.
"The power of such face-to-face contact is really why there are the lowest rates of dementia among people who are socially engaged."
"The power of such face-to-face contact is really why there are the lowest rates of dementia among people who are socially engaged."
6/ And Breast Cancer.
"It's why women who have breast cancer are four times more likely to survive their disease than loners are."
"It's why women who have breast cancer are four times more likely to survive their disease than loners are."
7/ And strokes:
"(It's) why men who've had a stroke who meet regularly to play poker or to have coffee or to play old-timer's hockey are better protected by that social contact than they are by medication."
"(It's) why men who've had a stroke who meet regularly to play poker or to have coffee or to play old-timer's hockey are better protected by that social contact than they are by medication."
8/ Pinker's talk predated the Covid Era but if you wanted to design a system guaranteed to undermine the strongest factor in keeping people alive, you couldn't have come up with something better than lockdowns.
9/ This is why pubs should be considered essential. Why libraries, schools, clubs, sports should be considered essential. This is why your job, whatever it is, should be considered essential. Because it is. They are all crucial in keeping you alive.
10/ As Pinker concludes:
“Face to face contact releases a whole cascade of neural transmitters and like a vaccine they protect you now in the present and well into the future."
“Face to face contact releases a whole cascade of neural transmitters and like a vaccine they protect you now in the present and well into the future."
11/ Even if lockdowns worked to suppress this virus it wouldn't be worth it. To answer my original question, social integration surely has a MUCH higher IFR than Covid. It's a guaranteed killing machine.
But lockdowns don't even work.
See here: https://twitter.com/the_brumby/status/1349478825747365889?s=20
But lockdowns don't even work.
See here: https://twitter.com/the_brumby/status/1349478825747365889?s=20
12/ We'll literally killing ourselves.
Incredibly efficiently.
And for nothing.
We need to stop.
Incredibly efficiently.
And for nothing.
We need to stop.
