Will we be studying this (reduction in opioid deaths) ten years from now? Who will do the studying? Who will be left? Why do people keep acting like this is normal and/or that everything will go back to normal? The people who are in power now do not want to study this. They do not want data. They do not want information. They do not want…
Will we be studying this (reduction in opioid deaths) ten years from now? Who will do the studying? Who will be left? Why do people keep acting like this is normal and/or that everything will go back to normal? The people who are in power now do not want to study this. They do not want data. They do not want information. They do not want facts. Especially if the average jane and joe can learn about it.
Over the past decade, my institute has earned a lot of money doing opioid research. Some of our funding has come from lawyers who are suing opioid makers on behalf of state and local governments. Some funding has come directly from state and local governments. I'm sure funding will continue to be available as long as the opioid crisis continues.
But the data we use for this research come mostly from federal sources. Even a lot of state-level data get filtered through NCHS or AHRQ, which standardize and harmonize the state data before releasing it to researchers. I remember the old days, when I received data directly from state governments, and I had to expend a lot of effort ironing out the state idiosyncrasies.
If we are fortunate, the states will form consortiums to replace some of the work being dropped by the federal government. That, of course, would require higher state taxes, so it is not a certainty.
Will we be studying this (reduction in opioid deaths) ten years from now? Who will do the studying? Who will be left? Why do people keep acting like this is normal and/or that everything will go back to normal? The people who are in power now do not want to study this. They do not want data. They do not want information. They do not want facts. Especially if the average jane and joe can learn about it.
Over the past decade, my institute has earned a lot of money doing opioid research. Some of our funding has come from lawyers who are suing opioid makers on behalf of state and local governments. Some funding has come directly from state and local governments. I'm sure funding will continue to be available as long as the opioid crisis continues.
But the data we use for this research come mostly from federal sources. Even a lot of state-level data get filtered through NCHS or AHRQ, which standardize and harmonize the state data before releasing it to researchers. I remember the old days, when I received data directly from state governments, and I had to expend a lot of effort ironing out the state idiosyncrasies.
If we are fortunate, the states will form consortiums to replace some of the work being dropped by the federal government. That, of course, would require higher state taxes, so it is not a certainty.