According to CNN (9/20, McPhillips), not only have “overdose deaths in the United States increased sharply throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching record levels in 2021,” but “the burden on different racial and ethnic groups has changed,” researchers concluded in findings published online Sept. 20 in a research letter in JAMA Network Open. After analyzing data “from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System” that “compared semiannual drug overdose deaths between the months of March to August for 2018, 2020 and 2021,” researchers found that overdose death rates appeared to be highest among American Indian and middle-aged Black men.
Related Links:
— “Drug overdose death rates highest among American Indian people and middle-age Black men, study shows “Deidre McPhillips, CNN, September 20, 2022