Unseen toll of pandemic affects the vulnerable

We are bombarded daily with the statistics on rising cases, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, the coronavirus disease that plagues our communities in ways we could not have imagined before March.

In the week before Christmas, those numbers in Pennsylvania included 556 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 509,320. There were 6,026 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19, double the peak in the spring. Of that number, 1,249 patients were in the intensive care unit with COVID-19.

There were 270 new deaths reported for a total of 12,890 deaths attributed to COVID-19, according to the state Department of Health.

These are not the only casualties. Other reports show the hidden toll of this pandemic, which continues to increase. Unreported child abuse and domestic violence that no one sees behind closed doors are on the rise, according to agencies that report statistics of abuse. Another hidden toll is on addiction, as agencies report the pandemic is exacerbating the long-festering drug crisis in Pennsylvania.

The Associated Press reported last week that overdoses are increasing in counties across the state.

“We are losing far too many Pennsylvanians to drug-related fatalities,” Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Jennifer Smith said. “For individuals struggling with substance use disorder, the isolating nature of the pandemic has been incredibly challenging.”

Health Department Deputy Secretary Ray Barishansky said “more than 4,457” people died from drug overdoses in Pennsylvania in 2019.

He and Smith did not give figures for 2020. But Barishansky said, “We have heard anecdotally from many counties that they are seeing an increase in overdose-related trends.” Those trends, they said, are discovered by reviewing 9-1-1 calls, emergency transports, naloxone use and deaths.

The 4,457 figure was little changed from 2018, Barisansky said, and was about 20% lower than the figure for 2017.

But it was far higher than the roughly 2,500 people who died from drug overdoses a few years earlier, in 2014.

The social isolation forced by the pandemic is especially hard on addicts who rely on interactions — meetings and in-person conversations — with a community of people who support one another.

“A sense of community during isolation has looked very different from traditional meetings and groups,” Smith said.

The widely anticipated COVID vaccine will not save those suffering from mental health and addiction.

An epidemic of “deaths of despair” prior to COVID-19 is now accelerating with an estimated 75,000 additional lives anticipated to be lost from suicide, and drug or alcohol misuse, the University of Penn Center for High Impact Philanthropy reports.

“Social distancing, anticipated cycles of stay-at-home orders, and business and school closures are producing widespread social isolation and economic distress. Frontline workers, children out of school, and families struggling financially are especially vulnerable, with Black, indigenous, and people of color communities disproportionally affected,” the center reported on its website.

In a similar report, the JAMA Network of the American Medical Association posted an editorial on its website noting that addicts or those suffering overdose may be less likely to seek medical treatment in a pandemic. The study noted that only 10 percent of enrolled patients attended outpatient opioid use disorder treatment after the start of the pandemic.

That study also noted however that expansion of some programs may be an opportunity for reducing overdoses: “These changes include (1) reducing financial barriers to treatment and naloxone through the emergency expansion of Medicaid, (2) easing of restrictions on the dispensing of methadone, and (3) expanding the role of telemedicine in the care of patients with opioid use disorder.”

The COVID-19 tragedies in loss of life and disruption to work, school and the normalcy of our lives is an escapable fact staring in our faces every day. Not so obvious and often unseen and undetected are the effects on those most vulnerable — children, abuse victims, and people suffering with mental health and addiction issues.

If you know someone struggling with drug use, don’t allow them to struggle in isolation. Reach out by phone or online. Encourage meetings which can be held virtually or in a sociallydistanced environment.

The holiday season holds a tendency to exacerbate depression and drug abuse. This year that tendency is magnified in a way never before encountered. There are too many victims of COVID. Don’t let silent victims of addiction add to that toll.