COVID Was Hiding Another Epidemic

THE DISEASE OF MORE? –

July 18, 2023 – That same day on the medical wards, an overhead speaker pages a “rapid response” announcement to my elderly patient’s room; she cannot wake up. And down the hallway, a middle-age finance manager is causing a scene because he isn’t prescribed the IV medication he wants.

All of these scenes happen on a daily basis, not just in my hospital but in those around the country. And all three of these patients’ ailments have the same cause: opioids.

Over the past three years, I’ve been taking care of patients stricken with COVID-19, young and elderly alike gasping for air. But the ebbs and flows of one pandemic have hidden the growing presence of another widespread disease: opioid dependence and abuse. There are more and more news reports of how the opioid crisis has ravaged the country, and it is only accelerating. Last year alone, nearly 110,000 people died from opiate use, many from the synthetic drug fentanyl.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that close to a million people have died from opiate overdoses since 1999. That is so many deaths, it has contributed to a decline of the national life expectancy age.