Drug Overdose Deaths Rose More Among Black and Indigenous Americans During COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 consumed the U.S. in 2020, another health crisis was also raging: the drug overdose epidemic. Nearly 92,000 people died from drug overdoses that year, a 30% increase from 2019. While overdose deaths rose across the population, the increase in deaths was far steeper among Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native people, according to data published July 19 in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Overdose deaths rose 44% among Black people from 2019 to 2020, and 39% among American Indian and Alaska Native persons, according to the CDC’s analysis of data from 25 states and the District of Columbia. For white Americans, they rose 22%. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Drug-related deaths have always varied by race and ethnicity, but the new data suggest that the rifts are deepening, and people of color are disproportionately affected. In the 1990s, when opioids surged, white people were more at risk of dying from drug overdoses than Black Americans, but deaths among Black people have more than caught up over the last decade. Overdose deaths among Black people have risen more than they have among white people every year since 2012, and rates of overdose deaths among Black Americans surpassed those for white Americans in 2020, according to a March analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry. Among American Indian and Alaska Natives, who historically had comparable overdose rates to white Amer...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Drugs healthscienceclimate Source Type: news