The evidence is in: Over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans have been weathering the many storms by drinking alcohol. And the number of people dying from this habit has risen noticeably.
The Why Axis website cites a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that estimates 1,000 more people per month have been dying of alcohol-related causes since the pandemic began in March 2020.
CDC data from 2018 to January 2020 said that between 3,000 and 3,500 Americans died each month due to alcohol illnesses such as liver disease. A chart with The Why Axis story showed a significant jump in these deaths in early 2020.
Deaths crossed 4,000 per month in the first half of 2020 and peaked at about 4,700 at the end of the year before falling back to 4,300 in the first half of 2021. More recent mortality rates are not included because CDC data is not yet complete.
In a National Bureau of Economic Research paper, a University of Chicago economist calculated that there were about 14,000 more alcohol-related deaths between March 2020 and June 2021 than if the pre-2020 trend had continued.
That’s an average of 875 extra deaths per month, but the economist said it’s most likely an undercount because it does not include deaths from drunk-driving accidents.
The Why Axis noted that the economist, Casey Mulligan, was a member of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers until 2019. Mulligan’s paper also looked at drug-related deaths, and his contention is that “these excess drug and alcohol deaths were driven in large part by the generous unemployment benefits and stimulus checks the federal government provided in 2020 and 2021.”
That’s an interesting theory, as prior research shows that when drugs and alcohol become cheaper to buy or easier to obtain, more people use them and a certain percentage gets sick and dies from it.
It’s hard, though, to assign the lion’s share of the blame for rising alcohol deaths over the past two years to unemployment pay and stimulus checks. That’s too politically convenient of an explanation.
There are lots of other possible contributing factors. What about the millions of people facing financial hardship when they lost their job in early 2020 as the pandemic shut down the economy? What about the fear of the unknown caused by a new infection? What about those who had a parent, sibling or close friend die from the virus? What about being isolated and unable to do simple things, such as go to a restaurant for dinner? What about the anxiety or anger over masks?
No doubt the government money for unemployment and economic stimulus gave more people the means to buy alcohol. But there were plenty of other factors besides extra money that encouraged them to drink.
