poverty – Desdemona Despair

Number of fentanyl overdose deaths in King County, 2013-2023. The number of people dying in King County from fentanyl has grown exponentially in the past few years, surpassing 1,000 deaths in 2023 alone. Data: Public Health – Seattle and King County. Graphic: Fiona Martin / The Seattle Times

December 30, 2023

King County’s 2023 fentanyl deaths top 1,050, surpassing record – “Drugs have gotten much more lethal, they’ve gotten to be much more available, and we know that they’re much less expensive – and they’re also much more synthetic than ever”

By Sara Jean Green and Lauren Girgis 29 December 2023 (The Seattle Times) – King County has seen over 1,000 fatal fentanyl overdoses in 2023, surpassing a record set last year by an astounding 47%. Over 1,050 of the county’s nearly 1,300 fatal overdoses this year involved fentanyl, sounding yet another alarm about the potency of the […]

Trends in the prevalence of severe obesity among U.S. children aged 2 to 4 years enrolled in WIC from 2010 to 2020 by (A) sex, (B) age, (C) race and ethnicity, and (D) household income. Graphic: Zhao, et al., 2023 / Pediatrics

December 26, 2023

New study bolsters evidence that severe obesity is increasing in young kids in the U.S. – “We are thinking it’s going to get worse”

By Mike Stobbe 17 December 2023 NEW YORK (AP) – A new study adds to evidence that severe obesity is becoming more common in young U.S. children. There was some hope that children in a government food program might be bucking a trend in obesity rates — earlier research found rates were dropping a little about a […]

Estimates of individuals experiencing homelessness in the U.S. by sheltered status, 2007-2023. Graphic: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

December 26, 2023

Homelessness in U.S. rose to record level in 2023, government says – “Without a significant policy response, this problem will continue to get worse”

By Jason DeParle 15 December 2023 (The New York Times) – Homelessness surged this year to the highest level on record, the federal government reported on Friday. An annual head count, conducted in January, found the homeless population had increased by more than 70,000 people, or 12 percent. That is the largest one-year jump since the Department […]

Life expectancy at birth, by sex: United States, 2000-2022. Data: National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data file. Graphic: NVSS / CDC

December 4, 2023

U.S. life expectancy creeps up as Covid deaths fall – “We’re halfway back to what we lost. But we certainly have a very long ways to go before we get to where life expectancy should be.”

By Emily Anthes and Benjamin Mueller 29 November 2023 (The New York Times) – Life expectancy in the United States has begun to climb again as the threat of Covid-19 has receded, increasing by more than a year from 2021 to 2022, according to data released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The […]

A new “bubble”, the glass pipe used for smoking meth. Photo: Hilary Swift / The New York Times

November 13, 2023

“Super meth” and other drugs push U.S. crisis beyond opioids – “It’s no longer an opioid epidemic. This is an addiction crisis.”

By Jan Hoffman 13 November 2023 (The New York Times) – Dr. Nic Helmstetter crab-walked down a steep, rain-slicked trail into a grove of maple and cottonwood trees to his destination: a dozen tents in a clearing by the Kalamazoo River, surrounded by the detritus of lives perpetually on the move. Discarded red plastic cups. […]

Flood damage in the city of Derna, where the death toll from floods in eastern Libya on 11 September 2023 was expected to soar dramatically. Photo: AFP / Getty Images

September 12, 2023

Up to 10,000 people feared dead after “catastrophic” floods sweep Libya – “The bodies are still lying on the ground in many parts. Hospitals are filled with bodies. And there are areas we have yet to reach.”

By Patrick Smith 12 September 2023 (NBC News) – As many as 10,000 people are feared dead after a storm slammed into Libya, unleashing a devastating surge of floodwaters across the country’s east. A disaster wrought by intense rainfall from Mediterranean storm Daniel intensified when two dams burst — with more than 2,000 people killed in […]

Age-standardized mortality trends in the United States and other wealthy nations. Figure shows deaths per 100,000 person-years: A) 1933–2021 and B) 1980–2021. The solid thick red line is the United States, the dashed thick grey line is the population-weighted average of 21 other wealthy nations, and the thin grey lines are country-specific trends for each of the other nations. Total mortality was age-standardized to the 2000 US population age distribution. Graphic: Bor, et al., 2023 / PNAS Nexus

July 23, 2023

More than one million Americans “missing” as U.S. endures crisis of early death – “Americans die younger than their counterparts elsewhere because when corporate profits conflict with health, our politicians side with the corporations”

By Tessa Koumoundouros 20 July 2023 (ScienceAlert) – If the United States of America had the same mortality rates as other wealthy countries, more than 1 million people would have avoided death in 2021, a new study found. Researchers have termed these excess deaths the Missing Americans. “The number of Missing Americans in recent years is unprecedented […]

Children being processed by the U.S. Border Patrol in Roma, Texas. In the past two years alone, 250,000 unaccompanied minors have come into the country. Photo: Kirsten Luce / The New York Times

July 15, 2023

Child labor in America is back and it’s as chilling as ever – “You’re taking children from another country and putting them almost in industrial servitude”

By Steve Fraser 13 July 2023 (The Nation) – An aged Native American chieftain was visiting New York City for the first time in 1906. He was curious about the city and the city was curious about him. A magazine reporter asked the chief what most surprised him in his travels around town. “Little children working,” the […]

Heat index forecast for the United States, 3 July 2023 - 8 July 2023. An estimated 76 million people in the U.S. were exposed to dangerous heat on 2 July 2023. Graphic: The Washington Post

July 2, 2023

Summer in the Southern U.S. is becoming unbearable – “This is how it’s going to be: Things will get hotter, storms will get worse, wildfire smoke will get more common. All the while, the ruts of inequity will be worn deeper, the same people time and time again placed on the front lines of catastrophe.”

By Olivia Paschal 1 July 2023 (The Atlantic) – A few weeks ago, as the first wave of smoke from the Canadian wildfires rolled south, I was getting ready to drive from Charlottesville, Virginia, about 18 hours west to my hometown of Rogers, Arkansas, to visit family. I figured that by the time I hit […]

Global Negative Experience Index, 2006-2022. As it does every year, Gallup asked adults in 142 countries and areas in 2022 if they had five different negative experiences on the day before the survey -- and then compiled the results into an index. Higher scores on the Negative Experience Index indicate that more of the population is experiencing these negative emotions. In 2022, about four in 10 adults worldwide said they experienced a lot of worry (41%) or stress (40%), and nearly one in three experienced a lot of physical pain (32%). More than one in four experienced sadness (27%), and slightly fewer experienced anger (23%). Worry, stress and sadness remained near their record highs set in 2021, although each declined one percentage point in 2022. The percentage of adults worldwide who experienced physical pain increased one point, while the percentage who experienced anger remained at 23% for the second year in a row. Graphic: Gallup

July 2, 2023

Global rise in unhappiness leveled off in 2022 – Worry, stress, and sadness remained near their record highs set in 2021

By Julie Ray 27 June 2023 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – Emotionally, the world was no worse off in 2022 than it was in 2021, but it is still in a heightened negative state, according to Gallup’s latest annual global update on the negative and positive experiences that people have daily. The well-documented global rise in negative emotions such as […]