“More Than Twice As Many” Drug Overdose Deaths As Covid-19 Deaths In San Francisco Last Year

The Wall Street Journal just published an article titled “Fentanyl Has Spread West and Overdoses Are Surging.” But the subtitle is the real gem in this story.

“More than twice as many people died from drug overdoses as from Covid-19 in San Francisco last year.”

There’s no denying the pandemic’s tragic death toll, nor the devastating effects it has had on the economy and American life.

But more than twice as many people died from drugs as from Covid just in San Francisco. And considering that San Francisco is in California, which was one of the hardest hit and most poorly managed states, that’s saying a lot.

So why is this not a bigger story? Why does every news organization dedicate untold hours of coverage to Covid and not to the thing that’s killing twice as many people in some places?

Is it maybe because it would reflect poorly on Democrat-run cities or San Francisco’s own Nancy Pelosi?

Maybe drug deaths don’t serve the political agenda of the radical left in quite the way that Covid deaths do?

Surging drug overdose deaths was one of those “unintended” or “secondary” consequences of the unscientific lockdowns that leftist politicians insisted were absolutely necessary, despite contradictory science and ample warning.

To make matters worse, the New York Times reports,

“The biggest jump in overdose deaths took place in April and May, when fear and stress were rampant, job losses were multiplying and the strictest lockdown measures were in effect. Many treatment programs closed during that time, at least temporarily, and “drop-in centers” that provide support, clean syringes and naloxone, the lifesaving medication that reverses overdoses, cut back services that in many cases have yet to be fully restored.”

Much to the chagrin of identity politics-loving liberals,

“Unlike in the early years of the opioid epidemic, when deaths were largely among white Americans in rural and suburban areas, the current crisis is affecting Black Americans disproportionately.”

But despite the racial angle that they usually pounce on, Democrat politicians still aren’t really talking about the drug overdose deaths during the pandemic. Mostly, liberal politicians are decrying states opening and life returning to normal, despite the fact that opening the country and returning to normal life will significantly improve the conditions that have directly contributed to the significant rise in drug overdoses.

They know this. They just don’t care enough to do anything about it because it’s more politically advantageous for them to focus on capitalizing on the Covid crisis than to fix a problem facilitated by their capitalizing on the Covid crisis.

As usual, it’s all about the narrative, and drug overdose deaths outpacing Covid deaths in certain Democrat-run cities simply doesn’t fit their narrative.