America’s top spokesperson on public health, the U.S. surgeon general, recently said loneliness is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Dr. Vivek Murthy said loneliness costs the health industry billions of dollars each year, and he declared it the latest public health epidemic. In a report, Murthy said about half of U.S. adults say they have experienced loneliness. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience.” “It’s like hunger or thirst.” “It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy told The Associated Press (AP): “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right.” “That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.” To pull back the curtain means to show how something is or acts that is normally not seen in public. The declaration is meant to raise understanding about loneliness.