During the first year of the pandemic, deaths related to alcohol rose by 30%.
The CDC reports that the overall number of deaths from alcohol rose between 2020 and 2021.
Marissa Esser, lead of the CDC’s alcohol program, says alcohol is often overlooked, but is a leading preventable cause of death.
According to WENY News, a report was released that lists numerous alcohol induced deaths that can be blamed entirely on drinking.
This includes alcohol causing liver or pancreas failure, alcohol poisoning, withdrawal, and other diseases directly tied to alcoholism. In 2019 there were 39,000 deaths from alcohol, but last year there were 52,000.
The rate of these types of death was rising even before the pandemic, but 7% or less each year.
In 2020 it rose by 26%, or 13 deaths for every 100,000 Americans.
Men are 2.5 times more likely to die this way, but the rate rose for both men and women. The age that had the highest rate was for those between the ages of 55 and 64, but it jumped by 42% for women between 35 and 44.
Another report released data related to other types of alcohol related deaths, like car accidents, suicides, or falls.
Every year there are more than 140,000 deaths that happen in these types of ways according to data from 2015 to 2019.
Research needs to be done to look at ways to reduce alcohol consumption, according to Esser. Some of these ways include increasing alcohol taxes or limiting the purchase of beer, liquor, and wine.
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