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Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#151

Post by collyw »

dkdk8283 wrote: post #100
starkd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A doom and gloom from the media isn't helping either. It's one thing to provide information, but the endless speculation about "how bad its going to get" is irresponsible.

The media stopped being about journalism long ago. It’s now infotainment. Our media is destroying the USA.

>Our media is destroying the USA.

I think this is incredibly true. And it is spreading to other parts of the world.

There is a lot of sensationalism, around black lives matter protests, and very little objective analysis of the "problem". It seems incredibly irresponsible considering the results.

I would urge everyone to listen to (or read) what Sam Harris says in his podcast on the topic, he brings some objectivity and rationality back to the discussion. You feel like there is still some sanity left in the world after listening to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmgxtcbc4iU

https://samharris.org/can-pull-back-brink/

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#152

Post by collyw »

Klinky wrote: post #85
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of the two examples I gave you, I can agree on one. People afraid to go to the ER could be considered a consequence of the pandemic - the lockdown doesn't say "Don't go to the ER if you need to". But lockdown did say "Don't make unnecessary trips to anywhere, not even the grocery store." Many of us interpreted that as avoiding unnecessary trips to the doctor also, which is why I for one have not had an annual physica…

"Don't make unnecessary trips" isn't the same as "don't see your doctor for necessary medical intervention". Call your doctor, find out what they recommend, and/or use Teledoc. Regardless, if there was no lockdown, and medical systems were overwhelmed, like in New York, would you have been able to see your doctor then? Would you have wanted to go to an overcrowded ER or Urgent Care and wait for hours surrounded by in…

Here in Spain the hospitals got full for a month or so. They have been coping fine for a couple of months after that, yet none of my cancelled appointments have been rescheduled yet.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#153

Post by collyw »

gdubs wrote: post #115
nostromo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WHO has predicted hundreds of millions of people will risk starvation this year due to the economic ramifications of lockdowns. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pandemic-could-mean-260-mi...

The lockdowns? The linked interview doesn’t mention lockdowns once — it talks about the effect of the pandemic . They go even further to say that it’s not so much money that’s the concern right now — it’s the supply chain. Critical, essential services aren’t being shutdown with lockdowns. They’re being shutdown because people are getting sick — like the food processing plants in the US, where people work in very clos…

Do you think the economic effects would have been the same without a lockdown?

We had a pretty bad flu season a couple of years ago, but no lockdown and no economic downturn. Covid is worse than flu, but not orders of magnitude worse.

https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patie...

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#154

Post by paul_f »

redisman wrote: post #10
WilTimSon wrote: post #4

Hardly a surprise, I'm sure suicide rates and alcohol consumption are going up as well. It's a combination of loneliness, lack of supervision (can't find a better word, I mean someone who could help in case of an overdose), despair about the future. This pandemic is unprecedented for the modern people, many don't have the means to deal with it psychologically.

Relentless doom and despair for at least a year with no leadership or hope in sight and the only thing you can do to help is to stay at home as much as possible. Yeah it's the perfect storm for any "self-medicators" out there.

Their is no leadership vacuum, it has been pushed down to the state and local level so that localities can deal with the situation in a way that best fits. New York City and Montana need different solutions. Whether you agree with their policies, it seems Newsom, Cuomo, De Santis and Abbott have definitely been engaged as leaders.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#155

Post by Klinky »

collyw wrote: post #152
Klinky wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't make unnecessary trips" isn't the same as "don't see your doctor for necessary medical intervention". Call your doctor, find out what they recommend, and/or use Teledoc. Regardless, if there was no lockdown, and medical systems were overwhelmed, like in New York, would you have been able to see your doctor then? Would you have wanted to go to an overcrowded ER or Urgent Care and wait for hours surrounded by in…

Here in Spain the hospitals got full for a month or so. They have been coping fine for a couple of months after that, yet none of my cancelled appointments have been rescheduled yet.

Did you contact your doctor to ask why, and when they will be rescheduled? What did they say?

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#156

Post by Klinky »

chrisco255 wrote: post #141
Klinky wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't make unnecessary trips" isn't the same as "don't see your doctor for necessary medical intervention". Call your doctor, find out what they recommend, and/or use Teledoc. Regardless, if there was no lockdown, and medical systems were overwhelmed, like in New York, would you have been able to see your doctor then? Would you have wanted to go to an overcrowded ER or Urgent Care and wait for hours surrounded by in…

In many states, they quite literally outlawed elective surgery, even where there wasn't a patient overload. And in some cases "elective" surgery are things like blood transfusions for leukemia. And then you also get late diagnosis of deadlier diseases like heart disease and lung cancer because people are afraid to go to the hospital. I suspect the waiting room issue could be solved by queuing people up electronically…

Yes, I should know because my surgery was "outlawed"(seriously?), and had to be rescheduled. Was not clear how effective lockdown would be, needed time to get COVID testing facilities operational, so anyone coming in had been screened ahead of time, also some states were sending resources to states more heavily affected.

Also your electronic solution sounds like it'd take months to implement. Why didn't you code it up and offer it to your doctor's office?

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#157

Post by mnm1 »

TheGrim-888 wrote: post #58
mnm1 wrote: post #31

People are desperate. This is to be expected. Along with unemployment, loneliness, hopelessness, helplessness, stress, fear, and anxiety have all risen greatly. This is how people cope when they are not in control of their lives and especially when they don't see a path to regain that control. I would expect more of this. Drug overdoses were already a huge issue because of societal issues. Now, they will be even more…

I'm not sure I agree with the statement that the US has the "worst virus situation". It has some of the most cases, sure, if you compare it by population though, it's still high, but it's not horrible. The US is #12 for cases per capita, most European countries are between 4,000-6,000 cases per capita, while the US is at 8,500, which is definitely more. But fewer people die per capita than in the UK, France, Spain, S…

> The majority of people that are refusing to wear masks are doing so because they believe the science/data supports that decision.

That's beyond absurd. There isn't a single shred of evidence in support of not wearing masks helping the pandemic and quite a lot of evidence to the contrary. Not only that, but common sense says that putting a barrier between your mouth / nose and infectious particles and thereby stopping some of them from entering your body can reduce the chances of one getting sick by lowering the amount of viral particles entering the body. People knew this in 1918. Now we have science to back this up and have had it for over a hundred years. It is complete idiocy to suggest that science doesn't support mask wearing.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#158

Post by magicnubs »

g0rbongler wrote: post #113
wmeredith wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s in your “stay sober toolkit” if you don’t mind sharing?

I'm not op but here's a sampling of a toolkit that's worked well for me. The 3 dimensions of sobriety are about BODY, MIND, and SPIRIT. A) PHYSICAL SOBRIETY 1. Go to AA/12-step meetings daily. 90 meetings in 90 days is a great first start. It's easy, free, all you have to do is show up. Get a sponsor, work the steps. It's the largest community of people who all never wanted to be there either. 2. EXERCISE! Can't stre…

How many people can afford a personal trainer and a therapist while not having a job?

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#159

Post by gdubs »

collyw wrote: post #153
gdubs wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lockdowns? The linked interview doesn’t mention lockdowns once — it talks about the effect of the pandemic . They go even further to say that it’s not so much money that’s the concern right now — it’s the supply chain. Critical, essential services aren’t being shutdown with lockdowns. They’re being shutdown because people are getting sick — like the food processing plants in the US, where people work in very clos…

Do you think the economic effects would have been the same without a lockdown? We had a pretty bad flu season a couple of years ago, but no lockdown and no economic downturn. Covid is worse than flu, but not orders of magnitude worse. https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patie...

I think it would have been worse; maybe not immediately, but over the long term I think it would be catastrophic.

The movie theater is on fire — how long can you keep it open? Keeping it open means it’s harder to keep the fire under control — and you risk the theater burning down completely. And how many people are going to want to keep going to a smoke filled theater? “Don’t worry, it’s only a risk for the people in the cheap seats.”

As far as the flu, this pandemic has revealed how cavalier we are about it. It is, as you say, an almost yearly strain on our system. So, for one, we’re adding an even bigger strain on top of an already big strain. Second, this is a novel virus — inherently there’s a lot more risk. There’s a lot we don’t understand, including whether there’s lingering conditions for otherwise young and healthy people.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#160

Post by paul_f »

monocasa wrote: post #121
1996 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be frank - that seems very selfish. No, it seems logical: if the elderly are at risk, by all means, let them shelter at home and give them money without destroying the economy (as the elderly as less likely to be employed). Even better, for old people who need to work, give them full pay every week, and just ask them in return to stay at home and use uber eats. But we didn't do that. Too bad: it would still have…

My 38 yo healthy coworker died from it. It's not just the elderly at risk.

Nobody is claiming no risk for younger age groups. We have to manage risk and decide policy based on the size of the risk. Which is exceedingly small for that age group.
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