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U.S. Passes a Grim New Overdose Benchmark
More people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. last year than in any other year in history. Are things about to get even worse?
Of the many long-term societal problems wrought or worsened by COVID-19, only a handful have begun to rear their ugly heads.
Seeing them, we are concerned that these issues, laid bare or laid open by a global pandemic and all the mitigation measures we took in response to it, are far worse than they as yet appear.
We are right to fear it.
Like vast icebergs, only the uppermost tips of these problems are visible, and the picture is unsettling verging on outright appalling. What’s worse, we sense- also correctly- that it is much too late to change course.
Whatever we bought with the sunk-costs of our quarantines, shut-downs, isolation and austerity measures; what we paid for it is finally starting to come into focus.
It’s dear.
We did things to mitigate COVID-19 we’ve never done before in response to any manmade or natural disaster- like shut down in-person public schools. What happens as a result is likely to be unprecedented, too.
America’s children paid dearly, as we all knew they would. “Kids are resilient,” or so the comforting saying goes. But as classes have…