NEW YORK—The rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30 percent in the United States during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new government data.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had already said the overall number of such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021. Two reports from the CDC this week provided further details on which groups have the highest death rates and which states are seeing the largest numbers.
“Alcohol is often overlooked” as a public health problem, said Marissa Esser, who leads the CDC’s alcohol program. “But it is a leading preventable cause of death.”…