Understandably, COVID continues to be a high priority for healthcare workers, public officials and the media. However, it has also 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.
Federal regulators are expected to authorize the mixing and matching of COVID-19 booster doses this week in an effort to provide flexibility as the campaign for extra shots expands.
It was a little more than three weeks ago that COVID patients began filling up the intensive care units at both Bakersfield hospitals where Mary Lynn Briggs works. It had happened before, but this felt different.