Many feared that the isolation and unemployment from Covid lockdowns would lead to an increase in “deaths from despair.” Those predictions were tragically spot on. 

According to new numbers from the CDC, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. skyrocketed by nearly 30 percent in 2020, the greatest increase in decades. According to The Wall Street Journal  most of the 93,000-plus fatalities involved fentanyl.

Responding to health crises by focusing only on physical sickness just won’t do. Nor can we continue to value pharmaceutical profits over human life. 

These numbers expose a second pandemic facing our culture: a radical lack of hope. We’re worshiping at the altar of stuff, sex, state, and self, and it cannot satisfy.

We were made for something more. Sharing that with the world is more than a matter of obedience—it’s a matter of public health.