TOPIC OF THE DAY

  Health Officials Still Focused on COVID, Despite Rise in Opiod Epidemic By Brad Bauer, Senior Vice President, Bamboo Health (MWW) – While COVID rightly remains a high priority for healthcare professionals, public officials, and the media, the pandemic has drawn attention away from the opioid epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that more than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses from April 2020 to April 2021, up almost 30% from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year. Of those deaths, more than two-thirds involved opioids. This astounding number exceeds the overdose death toll in any year since the opioid epidemic began in the 1990s and is the largest annual percentage increase since 1999, according to The Commonwealth Fund. It’s clear that healthcare providers, behavioral health professionals, and federal and state governments collectively must renew their focus on opioids.  Not only does opioid addiction devastate communities and families, but...