AT-RISK COMMUNITIES FORGO CRITICAL PRESCRIPTION DRUGS DURING COVID

Tim Shea & Milo Ferenczi

To live in the United States in 2020 is to live in an almost constant state of awe. Multiple simultaneous crises - an unraveling viral pandemic, a spiraling economic upheaval, and the historic racially-inspired street protests - have laid bare the country’s systemic fault lines along the dimensions of race, class, and age. In many ways the US is a nation in crisis.

2020 arrives on the heels of a decades-long debate about how we as a county should keep ourselves healthy. Heart disease, obesity, homelessness, addiction, and mental health have long plagued the country, but the onslaught of COVID-19 has only accelerated these trends. In fact, many at-risk communities have simply forgone critical prescription drugs treatments during COVID lockdown. When we look at the data around prescription drug fills in the US there is a clear and precipitous drop-off - in many communities, as much as 50% - right at the onset of nationwide stay-at-home orders.