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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

#61

Post by modriano »

drtillberg wrote: post #3

I'm cynical enough at this point to wonder whether the states will add these terrible losses to the COVID-19-related statistics to advocate for stricter and longer lock-downs.

We haven't had real lockdowns anywhere. We've had please-stay-home recommendations.

If we had a sufficiently strict lockdown early on, we could have brought transmission down to near 0, identified all new cases (and quarantined them away from the healthy population), set up strict testing at every border/airport, and been basically back to normal in 2 months, like China was. These deaths of despair are just another consequence of the Trump administration's total failure to grab the bull by the horns and come up with a plan. Trump's refusal to act forced state and city governments to figure out how to handle this, which created a major conflict of interests. State and city governments are largely funded by sales taxes, so shutting down bars/restaurants/retail/events/etc takes a crucial funding source away from state/city govts, but to stop transmission of the virus, those businesses can't be open. State/city govts can't print money like the Federal govt, and the GOP Senators are refusing to provide funds to state/city govts, which lead to the current explosion in case counts, which will just keep this going longer.

TL,DR: we absolutely need stricter management of this, or it will drag on forever.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#62

Post by chongli »

copperx wrote: post #15
yingw787 wrote: post #8

I remember talking to a technically minded friend about my clinical depression, and I remember how she mentioned building an app to help solve it. I remember thinking at the time how sometimes building an app isn't the solution to a problem. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest, most straightforward, and the least innovative ones: voting in policymakers who craft empathetic public policy, donating to charity…

Your friend must be hilarious. I don't think anyone would say something like that seriously.

I also knew someone who built an app to try to help depressed people. She was pretty serious about it. As a person who has battled depression off and on, I also found it difficult to believe someone would take such an app seriously.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#63

Post by Klinky »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #48
maerF0x0 wrote: post #18

Back when this started I made the claim that the long term consequences of lock down would exceed the short term benefits . Depression, Drugs overdose, murder (despair), Suicide, extra sedentary issues leading to diabetese/CVD, loss of jobs/meaning et al. I havent seen anyone do the math of the uptick there to talk about the marginal benefit of lockdown or the fact that this, once again, is a form of biased benefit f…

There are medical consequences to the lockdown also. Things like all the cancer screenings that didn't happen because people weren't going to the doctor. And the people who died from heart attacks because they were afraid to go to the ER.

Those aren't consequences of the lockdown they're consequences of a pandemic.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#64

Post by Darmody »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #60
Darmody wrote: post #38

I lived alone for 2 years but most of the day I was out, working and doing my stuff. Some weekends when I had nothing to do and no one to hang out with I kind of felt what loneliness is. Not that it was a big problem to me then as I can entertain myself with a good book, a game, some movies, etc, but several weeks of that would've been very different. Loneliness can hit you hard, very hard. And on top of that if you…

Similar : moved cross country for work, felt for a few days lonely, then somehow thought "not as lonely as pets in shelters", adopted one, total improvement for both!

Good to hear. Pets are amazing.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#65

Post by ideals »

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…

This time period also seems to be radicalizing people at an accelerated rate. After that USAF military police sergeant murdered a cop and federal security officer I started investigating some of these communities and they're growing. Not just the right-wing "race war" types either. Both sides of the political spectrum are growing their radicalized bases.

The communists and the facists types are both radicalizing around anti-government sentiment more than anything and we've seen real lives lost as a result.

I hope things get better but everything is increasing in polarization at a time when people have a lot of free time and a country being consumed by an out of control virus that has been politicized.

It's a recipe for disaster.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#66

Post by ianleeclark »

kukx wrote: post #23
mrow84 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think motivates states to want stricter and longer lock-downs?

I guess some vocal voters may actually prefer free money, than going to a tedious work and politicians pander to them.

Crazy to think someone would prefer unemployment to being coughed on by a jet ski salesman while waiting tables at a cheesecake factory.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#68

Post by kukx »

fzeroracer wrote: post #46
kukx wrote: post #14

There are more and more reasons to open back the economy. Does it make sense to keep stalling? Most likely some people will avoid the infection this way, but at what cost to others.

Texas is rapidly running out of capacity to treat patients. You're saying it's a good idea to 'open back the economy' knowing this? [1] https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/01/coronavirus-texas-ho...

In the same article: "Even as new cases and hospitalizations soar, the number of daily deaths in Texas has remained relatively low.".

There may or may not be an increase of cases when the economy opens. While the former is more likely the latter is not out of the question, depending on whether the community will take precautions like wearing masks.

However, if the economy stays closed, without a doubt, many lives will be negatively affected.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#69

Post by Tiktaalik »

Gotta love how everyone is applauding the wisdom of Dr. Bonnie Henry in her success in keeping the coronavirus under control in British Columbia and that of the government for following all her recommendations, and yet when Dr. Henry suggests that to tackle the opioid overdose epidemic, that BC needs to decriminalize drugs and create a safe supply of drugs for the addicted, suddenly everyone stops listening to her.

Drug overdose deaths in BC in May eclipsed covid 19 deaths for the entire year. You'd think people would be a bit more concerned about drug overdoses and willing to listen to the provincial health officer and follow her recommendations.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/overdose-dea...

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#70

Post by Mirioron »

starkd wrote: post #25
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.

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.

I would say the media is one of the larger factors (after factors such add unemployment though). When you can't go out and mingle with other people a lot of the information some people get about what's going on is from the media.
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