One of the consequences of the Covid lockdowns has been a surge in mental illness cases, across the West. In the UK, for example, millions of patients suffering from depression, anxiety, psychosis and eating disorders, are lined up waiting for mental health service care. The heads of the NHS Confederation and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have told The Guardian newspaper that 1.6 million were waiting for specialised treatment and there are another eight million who cannot get on the waiting list but would benefit from mental health care. It is a second pandemic, one very real.