Weapons, drugs, and COVID-19: Is the United States a country of epidemics?

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Weapons, drugs, and COVID-19: Is the United States a country of epidemics?
Fecha de publicación: 
15 April 2021
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President Joe Biden said yesterday that “violence with guns in the United States is both an epidemic and an international shame,” before announcing a series of limited steps, by using his executive power to address armed violence, three weeks after the events of three massive shootings and under a huge social pressure to take action on this.

Biden announced six actions, including the request to the Department of Justice to issue an order to regulate the sale of the so-called “ghost weapons” in a 30-day span.

These are the same guns bought from parts kit on the Internet with no serial numbers, which make these guns untraceable.

Biden’s statement came to light soon after five people, including two children, died in a shooting inside a house in Rock Hill, state of South Carolina.

The shooting streak that has shocked the US in the last few weeks has resulted in 24 deaths at least, ten of them in a supermarket located in Boulder, Colorado, where an individual opened fire with an assault rifle.

Last March 16th, 8 people were shot dead in several Asian massage parlors in Atlanta (Georgia). And last April 3rd, at least 3 people died and 9 were injured in two separate shootings that took place in the US cities of Wilmington (North Carolina) and Tuscaloosa (Alabama).

An AP press report pointed out that the rise in the number of death caused by addictions is another epidemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that over 80,000 people died by drug overdose between September 2019 and August 2020, according to the most recent available data. It is the largest number of deaths registered in one year.

The CDC estimates that the number of deaths by drug overdose across the US rose by 27% in that span. Western Virginia registered a 38% increase.

Both the rise of violent actions and drug abuse occur in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic, which is causing havoc worldwide.

The US reached the number of 30,998,579 cases positive to SARS-CoV-2, with 560,065 deaths by COVID-19, according to an independent counting made by the John Hopkins University.

From last Wednesday to Thursday, there were 999 more deaths and 80,823 people infected.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff

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