Could social robots be a tool that’s already available? As Vox reminds us, human beings are social animals that evolved to feel safest in groups, and as a result, we experience isolation as a physical state of emergency.Īs the world learns to cope with the fallout of the pandemic, there is a clear need for a change in how our society is prepared for scenarios such as this pandemic. A report published by the National Academies of Sciences found that social isolation and loneliness in older adults resulted in a “ 59 percent increased risk of functional decline”, a “ 50 percent increased risk of developing dementia”, along with a consistent relationship to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. TIME states that in the US alone, 35.7 million Americans live solo, meaning very limited social contact for potentially months on end. We know from previous pandemics (SARS, Influenza) that restrictions in society have detrimental impacts on people’s sense of belonging, worth and place within social groups. Social contact with others, which we are well aware promotes positive mental health, has been taken away from us in the blink of an eye. The fight in the immediacy is to slow the spread of the virus, however there is another major problem that healthcare practitioners are battling, that cannot be cured with a vaccine: social isolation. At the time of writing in October 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) states there have been nearly 36 million cases, resulting in over 1 million deaths. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused shockwaves across the world due to the lockdowns and imposed restrictions on life as we knew it.
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