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You brought your computer home from work “for 2 weeks” in March 2020 and stayed home for 2 years. Schools went virtual. Club meetings got canceled. Gyms closed. Friends and family became off-limits. Remember avoiding other people on the street?

It’s gotten better since the outbreak, but we’ve remained in relative isolation far longer than expected. And that’s a little sad—and bad for us. Turns out avoiding a virus can harm your health, because togetherness and connection are foundations of our well-being.

“We as humans are engineered by evolution to crave contact with other humans,” said Richard B. Slatcher, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Georgia. “This has been called the ‘need to belong,’ and it’s up there as a basic need with food and water.” Head over to WebMD to read the full story.