Great article and really important. I am a psychologist practising what I preach but I am still finding things very hard in the lockdown climate.

A couple of thoughts on the scepticism you describe. I guess I would encourage you to ask two questions? Is life more stressful without adequate social support? Does stress negatively impact health? I think both questions can reduce the leap of understanding as to why loneliness has such detrimental effects on health. The evidence base depicting the association between social support and stress is long-standing and compelling. Social support is indeed a buffer to the negative physical effects of stress.