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73% uptick in overdose deaths in 2020 so far in Ohio county: Coroner’s report

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An Ohio county’s coroner’s office on Wednesday reported that it saw a disturbing 73.4% increase in overdose deaths during the first six months of 2020.

The Franklin County Coroner’s Office report states that it saw 437 individuals die from overdoses during the first half of this year, a 73.4% increase from last year. The Coroner’s office published the numbers in a press release as part of its preliminary report on 2020 overdose statistics.

The press release also detailed the numbers tied to various kinds of narcotics.

Most startling were the fentanyl figures. Fentanyl comprised the lion’s share of overdose deaths, making up 85.5% of all those so far in 2020, compared to 79% from the same six-month period in 2019. Heroin-related deaths increased to 5% of total drug fatalities this year compared to 2.5% last year.

The remaining data on drug-related fatalities shows that the victims were mostly males, 71% of them, while females made up only 29%.

Additionally, the 25-44 age group had the highest numbers of drug-related deaths and the victims were disproportionally African American, amounting to 27.4% of deaths. The group represents roughly 24% of the county’s population, according to June 2019 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.

This Franklin County report reflects the broader, ongoing opioid epidemic that has wreaked havoc in many communities across the nation. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a spike in drug use and overdoses, since millions of Americans have been confined to their homes for months on end. More than 40 states saw a jump in opioid fatalities this year, according to an October report by the American Medical Association.

It should be noted, however, that cannabis saw the largest portion of the increase in drug usage during the pandemic whereas party drug usage fell, according to a more internationally focused study by The Economist. While two out of five people they surveyed reported an increase in consuming cannabis, they found that the use of ecstasy, cocaine, and ketamine plummeted by 41%, 38%, and 34% respectively.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

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Former Harvard medical professor says he was fired for opposing Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates

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“My hope is that someday, Harvard will find its way back to academic freedom and independence.” That is the heartfelt message from Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a former Harvard University professor of medicine since 2003, who recently announced publicly he was fired for “clinging to the truth” in his opposition to Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

Kulldorff posted the news on social media alongside an essay published in the City Journal last week. The epidemiologist and biostatistician also spoke with National Review about the incident. Kulldorff says he was fired by the Harvard-affiliated Mass General Brigham hospital system and put on a leave of absence by Harvard Medical School in November 2021 over his stance on Covid.

Nearly two years later, in October 2023, his leave of absence was terminated as a matter of policy, marking the end of his time at the university. Harvard severed ties with Kulldorff “all on their initiative,” he said.

The history of the medical professional’s public stance on Covid-19 vaccines and mandates is detailed by National Review:

Censorship and rejection led Kulldorff to co-author the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020 alongside Dr. Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University. Together, the three public-health scientists argued for limited and targeted Covid-19 restrictions that “protect the elderly, while letting children and young adults live close to normal lives,” as Kulldorff put it in his essay.

“The declaration made clear that no scientific consensus existed for school closures and many other lockdown measures. In response, though, the attacks intensified—and even grew slanderous,” he wrote, naming former National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins as the one who ordered a “devastating published takedown” of the declaration.

Testifying before Congress in January, Collins reaffirmed his previous statements attacking the Great Barrington Declaration.

Despite the coordinated effort against it, the document has over 939,000 signatures in favor of age-based focused protection.

The Great Barrington Declaration’s authors, who advocated the quick reopening of schools, have been vindicated by recent studies that confirm pandemic-era school closures were, in fact, detrimental to student learning. The data show that students from third through eighth grade who spent most of the 2020–21 school year in remote learning fell more than half a grade behind in math scores on average, while those who attended school in person dropped a little over a third of a grade, according to a New York Times review of existing studies. In addition to learning losses, school closures did very little to stop the spread of Covid, studies show.

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