Loneliness presents health dangers as deadly as chronic smoking, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned Tuesday.

Calling it an " epidemic of loneliness and isolation ," Murthy's office released a health advisory about the human need for social connection and community.

Social connection is an instinctual requirement for humans, Murthy told the Associated Press, noting, "It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing."

A top US health official has warned the country is facing an epidemic of loneliness that is as dangerous to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

The Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, has released an advisory calling for social isolation to be treated as seriously as obesity or drug abuse.

It warns that almost half of all Americans from all walks of life are thought to have been affected.

Mr Murthy has also unveiled a national framework to rebuild social connection.

Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic.

About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in a report from his office.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged calm on Sunday as a Covid-19 wave fueled at least partially by a new sub variant of the virus spread across Europe, adding that the pandemic should “not define our lives.”

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday with Trace Gallagher, Murthy said the country needs to exercise caution with the new spike in Europe but shouldn’t live in fear because of all of the tools at our disposal to combat the disease.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Wednesday that people who received two Moderna or Pfizer shots are considered fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, even though federal officials will encourage third shots to bolster immunity to the disease.

President Biden’s surgeon general on Thursday used his first formal advisory to the United States to deliver a broadside against tech and social media companies, which he accused of not doing enough to stop the spread of dangerous health misinformation — especially about Covid-19.

The official, Dr. Vivek Murthy, declared such misinformation “an urgent threat to public health.” His pronouncement came just days after representatives from his office met with Twitter officials, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says that misinformation — much of it on tech platforms — is a public health threat that has cost people’s lives and prolonged the Covid pandemic.

As Murthy said in a Thursday press conference, health advisories are usually about things people physically consume: food, drinks, cigarettes. But the first advisory of his tenure in the Biden administration (he was also the surgeon general under President Obama) is about what we consume with our eyes and ears: misinformation.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Wednesday rejected the provision of supervised injection sites, facilities where people can inject themselves with illegal drugs under medical supervision, as a response to the opioid crisis, citing safety concerns.

“I’m not bashing any particular person or group,” Adams said at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., “But the truth is, I have looked at the data, and I have seen little to no data suggesting they are overall more effective than expanding syringe services programs.”

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, a physician advocate for the Affordable Care Act appointed by former President Barack Obama, was abruptly removed from the post by the Trump administration Friday.

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, an Obama administration holdover, was asked to resign by the Trump administration on Friday. He was replaced by his deputy, Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, one of the first nurses to serve as surgeon general.