That was unfortunate because our response to public health problems shouldn't change depending upon the race or gender of those who seem to be most affected. Racializing the opioid problem was shortsighted because more recent data shows that overdose death rates for blacks, especially black men, are higher than those for most demographic groups:
Thanks for the clarification and for sharing what you observed during Case and Deaton's presentation at NIH.
As you noted, many people thought the opioid epidemic was a "white" problem. This NPR report from 2017 illustrates the point:
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/04/562137082/why-is-the-opioid-epidemic-overwhelmingly-white
That was unfortunate because our response to public health problems shouldn't change depending upon the race or gender of those who seem to be most affected. Racializing the opioid problem was shortsighted because more recent data shows that overdose death rates for blacks, especially black men, are higher than those for most demographic groups:
https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/opioid-overdose-deaths-by-raceethnicity/?dataView=1¤tTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/01/19/recent-surge-in-u-s-drug-overdose-deaths-has-hit-black-men-the-hardest/