What Happens When a Pandemic Intersects an Epidemic?

Abstract

Persons experiencing addiction may be at very high risk of infectious disease like COVID-19 due to high rates of smoking, recent imprisonment, conditions like HIV/AIDS, and high-risk behaviors (Ezzati et al. 2002; Farhoudian, et. al. 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic, most courts have shuttered, and treatment center admissions have halted, yet the opioid crisis rages on. America’s opioid epidemic may have just become more lethal and socially costly.

Keywords: COVID-19, employment, housing, economic inequality, opioid epidemic, law

JEL Classification: H12, J18, R21