Is Alcohol an "Essential Good" During COVID-19? Yes, but Only as a Disinfectant!

Is Alcohol an "Essential Good" During COVID-19? Yes, but Only as a Disinfectant!
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2020 Jul 31;:
Authors: Neufeld M, Lachenmeier DW, Ferreira-Borges C, Rehm J
Abstract
Alcohol adversely affects people around the world on a large scale even in non-pandemic times, with about three million deaths attributed to alcohol use each year (Shield et al., 2020). During the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a variety of government reactions related to alcohol control were seen, with some countries banning the sale of alcohol outright, and others formally declaring off-premises sales and alcohol delivery services to be "essential," allowing for additional forms of delivery and weakened restrictions on its availability (Rehm et al., 2020, Reynolds and Wilkinson, 2020).
PMID: 32735694 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research - July 30, 2020 Category: Addiction Authors: Neufeld M, Lachenmeier DW, Ferreira-Borges C, Rehm J Tags: Alcohol Clin Exp Res Source Type: research