We Haven’t Kicked Our COVID Drinking Habit
New data suggests millions more of us are drinking alcohol… and drinking heavily.
You’re stuck in your house. Work is closed or you’re working remotely. Your kids’ school is closed or offering an hour or two of zoom-based instruction a day. You have a bit of cabin fever, which, you suppose, is better than the actual fever that comes with COVID infections which are running rampant during the height of the pandemic. But still — it’s stressful. What do you do?
We all coped in our own way. We baked sourdough bread. We built that treehouse we’d been meaning to build. We started podcasts. And… we drank. Quite a bit, actually.
During the first year of the pandemic, alcohol sales increased 3% — the largest year on year increase in more than 50 years.
There was an increase in drunkenness across the board, though most pronounced in those who were already at risk from Alcohol Use Disorder.
Alcohol-associated deaths increased by around 10% from 2019 to 2020. Obviously, this is a small percentage of COVID-associated deaths, but it is nothing to sneeze at.
