The enforced absence of hugs has been cruel and must not be repeated

Posted at 10am UK time

The research literature established long ago that loneliness is a profound source of human misery and a killer. This is ‘the science’.

As ministers start to ‘give’ us back our freedoms, remember that socialising and embracing other humans serves as a necessary psychological function.

We may be more mentally durable than physically and may be able to take some forms of mental deprivation for longer than we can physical (eg withholding food or water). However many of the authoritarian Covid restrictions have not only breached civil liberties, abrogated human rights, savaged the economy, endangered many from non-Covid ailments and have had dubious merits regarding infection control – they have also deprived millions of necessary mental and social nourishment.

Cartoon by Crid.

These are bodily functions, the enforced absence of which is cruel and unusual. Any enquiry must acknowledge that the lockdown option must be removed from the table in all future circumstances.