Coronavirus fatalities, which climbed gradually in 2020, ended the year as the sixth leading cause of death in Sonoma County, at 210 lives lost by the time the calendar turned.
COVID-19 followed cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, stroke and unintentional injury — the top five listed causes of death in the county by total number in 2020, just as in recent years past, according to mortality data released Wednesday by Sonoma County Public Health.
But while not included in the rankings by category, officials reported a tragic spike in drug overdose deaths, which, at 142 reached 78% above the three-year average from 2017-2019.
The information was included in a survey of mortality trends released as part of a public briefing Wednesday in which officials said most of the data still needed to be submitted to an analytical “deep dive” before they could draw any real conclusions.
The county said 135 overdose deaths were unintentional, with nine more being intentional. Officials could not be reached after the briefing to explain the discrepancy in the death totals.
At least 102 deaths involved opiates — 92% of which were linked to fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid. That’s more than double the year before.
After months of concern among county officials and the public about a potential surge in “diseases of despair” as the pandemic and lockdown lingered — and, with it, economic loss and social isolation — the rise in overdose deaths is striking.
Its impact on Black and Latino communities was particularly pronounced, with overdoses in the Black population at five times the expected rate last year, compared with the three-year average. Overdoses among Latino individuals reached 2.75 times the number expected. Among non-Hispanic white people, the number was 1.58 times what was expected.
“We know that there are a lot of things happening in our current environment that would contribute to that,” said Bill Carter, the county’s behavioral health director. “… For example we know that folks are under stress, and economic stress, isolation, and we know that has an impact on this.
“We know that access to treatment is impaired,” Carter said. “You don’t have access to in-person treatment services in the way you did before COVID hit. This is (also) a law enforcement issue. Fentanyl is a phenomenon in and of itself, and the kind of fentanyl that’s hitting our system is. So all of these things are happening at the same time.”
The data also show that the number of suicides was “significantly greater” last year than expected among Latino residents, when compared with the three-year average.
“We recognize that while the rates are down, the stressors that people are experiencing are the stressors that generally are risk factors for suicide, and we are concerned about what happens as the community opens up and we get back to normal interactions,” Carter said.
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