Fentanyl, COVID‐19, and Public Health

• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Louise Shelley
• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.355

390

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.355

© 2020 Policy Studies Organization

Fentanyl, COVID‐19, and Public Health

Louise Shelley

COVID‐19 temporarily severed the production and the supply chains for fentanyl, a synthetic nar-

cotic responsible for over 30,000 deaths in the United States in 2018. Much fentanyl was produced in

Wuhan, China, the source of the epidemic. Fentanyl was previously sold directly to American con-

sumers through online websites and was also supplied by Mexican drug traffickers, who produced the

drug from precursor chemicals purchased from China. With the advent of the pandemic, websites from

Wuhan‐based sellers reported that the drugs were not being produced or shipped. Moreover, Mexican

drug traffickers were deprived of the precursor chemicals to produce this highly potent opioid. Despite

the reduced entry of illicit fentanyl to the United States, enough was stockpiled by drug traffickers

perpetuating a very serious problem of illegal fentanyl abuse. Deaths have increased since the start of

the COVID epidemic, as the problems of drug abuse have not stopped and access to treatment and

medical services are diminished. Moreover, isolation and lack of social support compound the problem.

The initial data on increased deaths from illegal fentanyl consumption are consistent with the overall

picture of the impact of the COVID epidemic. Those who are most vulnerable are suffering dis-

proportionately from the drug trade.

KEY WORDS: fentanyl, covid, opioids

Before the COVID‐19 pandemic, one of the major killers of Americans who

abused narcotics was illegal fentanyl. In recent years, there has been an exponential

growth of deaths from consumption of nonmedically prescribed fentanyl. In 2016,

synthetic opioids (primarily illegal fentanyl)were responsible for over 19,000

deaths, up from around 3,000 in 2010 (Han et al., 2019; National Institute on Drug

Abuse, 2018). In 2018, there were more than 31,000 Americans deaths that were

attributable to the consumption of synthetic opioids, a total that included increased

deaths from illegally procured fentanyl (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, 2020b).

As a consequence of the ready availability of this potent drug in the past, the

“opioid epidemic”in 2018 was killing, on average, 85 Americans daily (Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 2020a). Most of these deaths were attributable to

illegal fentanyl (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020a). Although the

supply chains for illegally produced fentanyl have been interrupted by the pan-

demic as the main source of production is China, the American Medical Association

(AMA)reported in early June, “The AMA is greatly concerned by an increasing

number of reports from national, state and local media suggesting increases in

opioid‐related mortality—particularly from illicitly manufactured fentanyl and