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Humans 'not meant to be alone': Many Americans haven't seen or touched another person in 3 months because of COVID-19
May 24, 2020 2 mins, 17 secs

States are reopening, but many people are still quarantining alone during the coronavirus pandemic, threatening their mental and physical health.

Living alone in her home in Lubbock, Texas, Martinez used to watch her 3-year-old grandson, Hendrix, so often that he has his own bedroom for overnight visits.

As cities and states slowly re-open their economies and ease back on social distancing regulations, many Americans are skipping the rush back to restaurants and gyms and choosing to stay home instead, their isolation now stretching into a third month. They're doing so because they are elderly, medically vulnerable, skeptical of their local government's re-opening plans or just too afraid to venture back out into society.

For those quarantining alone, that means even more time spent pacing around their homes.

"I hadn't watched 'Terms of Endearment.' I cried so hard during that," Martinez said.

"We are not meant to be alone," said Holt-Lunstad, who has joined a team of international researchers to study how quickly the forced isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people. "That state of alert, if it is prolonged, puts wear and tear on our bodies.

Millions were already living alone before the pandemic started, with AARP estimating that more than 8 million Americans age 50 and older are affected by isolation.

For some, like Edward Watson, it took a while before the isolation really started to hit. .

He has no TV, he shut down his social media accounts years ago, and he has few friends in his new home of Toccoa, Georgia.

"It compounded my isolation," Kulick said.

For Martinez, the grandmother in Texas, her first attempts to Skype with her grandson showed how difficult the quarantine would be.

Ema Martinez has been quarantining alone in her home in Lubbock, Texas, mostly cut off from her family and friends because she's fearful of contracting COVID-19 given her weakened immune system due to chronic leukemia. (Photo: Courtesy of Ema Martinez).

One by one, and in their own ways, Martinez, Watson and Kulick have found ways to battle their extreme isolation.

The Toccoa, Ga., resident has been quarantining alone during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been taking drives into the mountains to break up his isolation. (Photo: Courtesy Edward Watson)

"She's my hero," Kulick said

Somehow, the added isolation of the pandemic proved the inspiration she needed to finish

"It took the pandemic to make me finally finish it."

Denise Kulick visits Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia in early March of 2020 before she began quarantining alone in her home in Pennsylvania. (Photo: Courtesy J. Denise Kulick)

In Texas, Martinez realized she was running out of ways to keep herself sane

For Martinez, that increases the chance of Hendrix getting the virus and then passing it on to her. 

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