After declining the previous year, deaths from drug overdose in the United States increased by 18% over the 12-month period beginning in June 2019 and ending in May 2020. According to the CDC, deaths from drug overdoses have already increased in 2019, but accelerated during the first months of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
A new CDC report shows that approximately 81,230 people were fatally overdosed in the United States over a 12-month period. It is the largest number of drug overdoses for a period of one year ever recorded.
According to estimates, the report finds that the largest monthly increases took place in March and April, coinciding with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the first blockages and the appearance of the media hysteria fever on the virus. Estimates of overdose deaths in these two months are the highest since 12-month provisional estimates began to be calculated in January 2015.
The CDC says the deaths were mainly caused by overdoses involving synthetic opioids, such as illicitly manufactured fentanyl, but also noted a significant increase in the number of deaths involving potentially abusive psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine.
While the media presents constant updates on the number of deaths and the number of coronavirus cases, the damage caused by blockages is rarely presented to the public to see.
In May, after weeks of painful blockades, hundreds of doctors signed a letter to President Trump calling the blockades a “mass incident.”
“These include 150,000 Americans a month who have had a new cancer detected by routine screening that has not happened, millions who have missed routine dental care to address the problems of heart disease / death and preventable accidents. stroke, heart attack, and child abuse. Hotline suicide calls have increased by 600 percent, “doctors wrote.
The birth rate in the United States is also expected to fall substantially. The Brookings Institution estimates that somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 fewer births will take place next year due to the pandemic. The number is increasing compared to the previous year’s decrease of 44,172 births.
Early indicators also suggest that suicides are on the rise, although official data are not available. In Japan, for example, more people committed suicide in October than died from COVID-19 during the pandemic.
And a new study of income and poverty in the United States found that nearly 8 million Americans fell into poverty during the summer. According to one of the study’s authors, it is the biggest poverty jump in a single year since the government began tackling poverty 60 years ago.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO) has acknowledged that blockages affect poor people and should be largely avoided.
“The blockades have only one consequence that you should never reduce, and that is making poor people poorer and poorer,” said Dr Nabarro, the WHO’s special envoy on COVID-19, in October.
It seems that there is a whole evil to overcome any good that could come from blockages. Local governments and leaders should remember these negative consequences before they get stuck again.