A recent headline in the New York Times described chaos in a park in New Haven as dozens of people used a batch of synthetic marijuana (“K2”) and overdosed on fentanyl. As horrific as this scene is to imagine, it is not difficult for anyone who has spent time in a hospital emergency room, or, increasingly, in any public space. EMTs on the scene used the opioid-reversal agent Narcan to prevent anyone from dying in this mass overdose. It could have been worse.
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God’s Punishment
Many still remember the words – “GRID”, “God’s punishment for immorality”, “gay plague” – that were commonplace in the United States during the 1980’s and 1990’s, a time when stigma against people living with HIV was rampant. Thousands in the gay community were ostracized, left to fight alone during one of the most devastating infectious outbreaks of the century. Many suffered and died while the country rationalized the epidemic as something that people brought upon themselves, deprioritizing research and public health measures that could have saved lives.
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