Ruby Wax: Impending mental health crisis will be the ‘next pandemic’

20 September 2020, 15:55 | Updated: 20 September 2020, 19:45

Mental health will be the ‘next pandemic’_Ruby Wax

Writer and comedian Ruby Wax warned that the UK is not prepared for the imminent crisis in mental health which will inevitably follow the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rachel Johnson was speaking to writer, comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax on topics ranging from the US presidential election to coronavirus when the conversation zoned in on the mental health impact of the pandemic.

Ms Wax told Rachel that "before this, people suffered from isolation" and the Covid-19 crisis is only accentuating that through local lockdowns and self-isolation.

"We had this problem before, and with lockdown it's much more prevalent."

Offering a solution, the comedian told Rachel that "we need to work as a community," to get through the pandemic, adding "it's only humans that can make you feel like you're with somebody, that somebody has got your back."

"We're born to mingle," Ms Wax insisted.

Rachel rebuked the comment, noting that the UK has "now been told not to mingle.

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"The atomisation of society is now by law."

Rachel wondered "how is that going to affect people's mental health?"

"It's going to be the next pandemic," Ms Wax warned, "and what's so ironic is that nobody's getting ready for it."

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