{"id":26099,"date":"2020-03-17T00:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T04:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=26099"},"modified":"2020-03-09T10:29:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T14:29:32","slug":"will-the-human-race-be-more-susceptible-to-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-going-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/17\/will-the-human-race-be-more-susceptible-to-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-going-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the human race be more susceptible to obsessive compulsive disorder going forward?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What do you call someone who washes his hands 30 times a day? “OCD<\/a>,” right? As the coronaplague spreads, what do you call someone who washes his hands 30 times a day? “Alive”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it turns out that OCD is protective against coronavirus and the virus mutates such that it can kill a significant number of reasonably young people (i.e., not well past their child-producing years), could it be that OCD will become a significantly more common human characteristic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without coronavirus, if the world population expands to 11 billion or more and the trend toward urbanization continues, will the dense living conditions favor those with OCD habits? There are plenty of existing diseases that are transmitted from person to person and that can be stopped with OCD-style hand washing, wearing of obsessively-fitted face masks, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n