The Opioid Crisis and COVID-19

Opioid deaths rose from less than 10,000 a year in 1999 to over 40,000 in 2016. But during the next new years (2017-2019) Opioid overdoses remained relatively stagnant. Then in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic happened, overdoses skyrocketed peaking at 2134 deaths in a single week. Many hypothesizes have been provided for this rise including social isolation, unemployment, disruption of treatment access, mental distress, and the presence of more lethal drugs. In this class we will first go over the biology/chemistry of how opioids and their treatments work and then we will dive in and explore each hypothesize and the scientific backing for it. Finally We will discuss the Unemployment hypothesize looking at national and state unemployment and overdose Data. With opioid overdoses happening more and more, it is imperative to understand the opioid epidemic from both the micro and macro perspective, and that is what this class provides.