U.S. drug overdose deaths rise 30% to record during pandemic

msn ^ | Julie Steenhuysen and Daniel Trotta

[BenLurkin]

U.S. deaths from drug overdoses leapt nearly 30% to more than 93,000 in 2020 - the highest ever recorded.

"During the pandemic, a lot of (drug) programs weren't able to operate. Street-level outreach was very difficult. People were very isolated," said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, a health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

[BenLurkin]

[a fool in paradise]

People were depressed.
People were bored.

[Mariner]

They killed themselves.

Suicide.

[rdl6989]

I’ve seen several reports about increased use of drugs and alcohol since this started.

[shanover]

Government shutdown was the cause of all of this.

[toddausauras]

Lockdowns are murder. But hey who cares as long as everyone wears masks we will be fine

[Red6]

And as the article pointed out, many treatment programs were either shut down temporarily or impacted negatively by being virtual.

There were folks that saw delays in diagnostics for cancer! Some folks were impacted in getting dialysis...

It is truly questionable (albeit at this point folks won’t believe that yet - they are still a bit hyped up) if all these government shutdowns and social distancing did more harm than good?

[Qui is]

And they had plenty of free government money. In California, people were receiving $520/wk in State unemployment and another $600/wk Federal COVID benefit. For many that was double what they made when they had a job. Can’t go anywhere or do anything besides sit on the couch or on the computer. Time to break out the alcohol and drugs.

[Leep]

Still, politicians and the medical industry complex profited hansomly?

[FamiliarFace]

Excess deaths.

[Kevmo]

How many died?

The cure is possibly worse than the 99.5% survival rate disease.

[Dalberg-Acton]

Losers.

[Flick Lives]

There were folks that saw delays in diagnostics for cancer!

—

A dear cousin succumbed to a reoccurrence of cancer because there were no non-emergency doctors office visits.

[MattMusson]

But, only 58,000 died during the ENTIRE Vietnam war.

[oldasrocks]

We should thank biden for this population control with the extra drugs coming across the border.

[Bernard]

It took 2 people to write the article, with additional reporting from a 3rd, without citing a specific source. There is a mention at the end : The data showed opioids were involved in 74.7% of overdose deaths, rising to 69,710 in 2020 from 50,963 in 2019. "We do know the primary driver of the increase (in deaths) involves synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl," Bob Anderson, chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch at the health statistics center, said.

... but there are several quotes in the article so the traditional who, what, why, where, when seems to have been skipped or assumed here. 21st century journalism, with 2 editors in addition to 2 or 3 reporters.

[BenLurkin]

It’s a conspiracy.

[libertylover]

Gee, who could’ve predicted such a thing?

[TigersEye]

Those deaths were necessary to flatten the curve and save people from dying of Covid.

Same thing for all of the teen suicides.

[TigersEye]

The best friend I’ve ever had died of pneumonia in May.

He had been getting repeated appointments to diagnose the problem for a year ... but it turns out that pneumonia can’t be diagnosed over the telephone.

When he was finally hospitalized there was nothing they could do for him.