How many of those overdoses are due to the economic or personal impact of COVID-19?

A lot of people have lost their jobs, made homeless, or had their loved ones die due to COVID-19, and many more are incredibly stressed out and hopeless from the news and their lack of prospects in the future.

Depression and other mental health issues were already bad enough before the pandemic, but now they're even more prevalent.

Depression can lead people to seek escape from their misery with opioids, and can lead others to want to end their lives with them.. often the two impulses are related, with depressed people engaging in behavior which at the surface might seem pleasure-seeking but underneath is actually self-destructive.

I have a hard time believing COVID-19 and many of these overdoses are unrelated.