Applying the lessons of COVID-19 response to Canada's worsening opioid epidemic

Norton, Alexa

doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100633

Cited by 21 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…These measures can be coupled with others aimed at protecting a safe drug supply, reducing the stigmatization and criminalization of people who use substances, and reducing harms of substance use. 70 …”

Section: Access To Health Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for equitable COVID-19 pandemic recovery in Canada

Persaud¹,

Woods²,

Workentin³

et al. 2021

CMAJ

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Section: Access To Health Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for equitable COVID-19 pandemic recovery in Canada

Persaud¹,

Woods²,

Workentin³

et al. 2021

CMAJ

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“…This difference can be explained by the increase of illicit drug toxicity deaths in British Columbia. More British Columbians died from illicit drug overdoses than from COVID-19 in the first 8 months of 2020 (Norton & Kerr, 2020). For example, in June 2020, the province recorded its worst number of opioid-related deaths ever at 183, up from 76 in June of 2019 (British Columbia Coroners Service (2021)), compared to 10 deaths officially attributed to COVID-19.…”

Section: Excess Mortality By Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Counting the Dead: COVID-19 and Mortality in Quebec and British Columbia During the First Wave

Décarie

Michaud

2021

Can. Stud. Popul.

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The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to excess mortality across the globe, and Canada has been no exception. Nonetheless, the pandemic experience has been very different across provinces, and the objective of this paper is to investigate these differences focusing on two extreme cases. We contrast the mortality experience of British Columbia with that of Québec to understand how large differences in mortality during the first wave of the pandemic emerged across these two provinces. We find that most of the differences can be found in excess mortality in institutions (nursing homes) and that travel restrictions, differences in how deaths are recorded, differences in the seasonality of the flu, or differences in how the pandemic spread across different economic segments of the population are unlikely explain these large differences. We document that the reported death toll from COVID-19 is about 30% larger than excess mortality in Quebec due to lower mortality from other causes of death, in particular malignant tumors, heart disease, and respiratory problems. We do not find evidence of an income gradient (measured by postal code level income) in relative excess death for the first wave. Keywords Excess mortality • COVID-19 • Nursing homes • Cause of death RésuméLa première vague de la pandémie de la COVID-19 a entraîné une surmortalité dans plusieurs pays à travers le monde, incluant le Canada. Par contre, l'ampleur fut bien différente à travers les provinces canadiennes et l'objectif de cette analyse est d'étudier ces différences en se concentrant sur deux provinces spécifiques. Pour ce faire, nous comparons la mortalité de la Colombie-Britannique avec celle du Québec pour tenter de comprendre les grandes différences observées entre ces deux provinces durant la première vague de la pandémie. On constate qu'une grande partie de la sur-

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“…The pandemic has worsened the ongoing public health SUD crisis [40]. Since the start of the pandemic, there has been an increase in the number of fatal overdoses and harm from substances (e.g.…”

Section: Aggravating the Addiction Epidemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine) [41]. For example, the number of opioid-related deaths in British Columbia, Canada, which became the epicentre of the opioid epidemic in 2016, reported the highest number of opioid-related deaths in June 2020 (183 deaths) [40]. Taken together, physical distancing regulations and lockdown measures have severely reduced access to critical health services (e.g.…”

Section: Aggravating the Addiction Epidemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taken together, physical distancing regulations and lockdown measures have severely reduced access to critical health services (e.g. supervised consumption facilities, harm-reduction services) [40]. Limiting the availability of these programmes has disrupted treatment programmes and increased the risk of withdrawal and overdose fatalities [40].…”

Section: Aggravating the Addiction Epidemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

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