Fox News medical associate Dr. Marc Siegel discusses’ Sesame Street ‘addressing the opioid crisis and Bernie Sanders’ health.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to massive layoffs, which may exacerbate the opioid epidemic.
Drug overdoses in the United States have been trending upward for decades, and now the coronavirus pandemic appears to have exacerbated the problem as more people grapple with the loss of their jobs.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control reported that there was a record 70,980 drug overdose deaths in 2019, representing a 4.8 percent increase from the previous year. Fatal overdoses had decreased for the first time in decades in 2018.
Drug overdoses have only accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. According to real-time data obtained by The Washington Post, overdose suspicions rose 18 percent in March compared to last year, 29 percent in April and 42 percent in May.
The economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus has resulted in mass layoffs and unemployment, a root cause of drug abuse resulting in overdose deaths.
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The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank looked at drug use before, during, and after the Great Recession of 2005-2011 and found that people were much more likely to use drugs when they were unemployed.
“Illegal drug use was 18 percent for the unemployed, followed by 10 percent for part-time workers, 8 percent for full-time workers, and less than 6 percent for those in the ‘other’ category. ‘, which includes retirees, “the study authors wrote.
More than 50 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began in mid-March. The unemployment rate was set at 11.1 percent last month, but it was as high as 14.7 percent in April.
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has commented on how the opioid crisis has dragged down the economy previously.
“An extraordinary number of people are taking opioids in one form or another and weighs heavily on labor force participation, largely but not exclusively on younger men, also younger women,” Powell said while testifying before the Services Committee. Chamber Financials in July 2019. “It is a national crisis, really. I mean the humanitarian aspect is completely convincing. But the economic impact is also quite substantial.”
Opioids, which include prescription drugs like oxycodone as well as heroin and fentanyl, accounted for 70 percent of all overdose deaths in 2018, according to the CDC.
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It is not only the increase in drugs, but also the nature of the drugs being used that may be driving the increase in fatal overdoses. There is some evidence that drug dealers have been more likely to contaminate their drugs, such as by mixing fentanyl with heroin, during the coronavirus pandemic.
The United Nations said in a May report that the coronavirus has disrupted the international illicit drug trade, resulting in “reductions in purity.” Because of that, “drug users have been changing the substance (for example, from heroin to synthetic opioids).”
US officials warned even before the pandemic that this practice of reducing drugs was becoming increasingly common.
“Taking advantage of the opioid epidemic and prescription drug abuse in the United States, drug trafficking organizations are now shipping counterfeit pills made from bulk fentanyl to the United States for distribution,” said acting DEA Administrator Uttam Dhillon. , last November. “Counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and heroin with fentanyl are responsible for thousands of opioid-related deaths in the United States each year.”
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