The pandemic is forcing billions into isolation — and that will have long-term repercussions for human civilization

When historians look back at the coronavirus pandemic, they won’t simply discuss the hundreds of thousands of lost lives and widespread political, economic and social chaos. As a history graduate student, I can imagine how my colleagues would approach this from a scholarly level if they were discussing a distant event rather than a current one. They would want to know about the experiences of the individuals under quarantine, enduring seemingly endless lockdowns, terrified for their physical safety. They would ask two main questions:

1. What happens to individuals when they’re forced to be isolated for long periods?
2. What happens to societies and cultures?

To answer the first question, Salon turned to Dr. David Reiss, a psychiatrist and expert in mental fitness evaluations who contributed to the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”