Political Quotes

“I rise today to speak in opposition to the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration. For more than two decades now, the United States has suffered a devastating epidemic of opioid use disorder, overdoses, and deaths. Since 1999, almost 1 million Americans have died of drug overdoses, with the vast majority of those deaths attributable to opioids. As our country continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, we must remember and prioritize this other deadly public health emergency. In 2020, overall drug overdose deaths reached an alltime high for the year, with approximately 93,000 Americans losing their lives. More than 60 percent of those deaths were from synthetic opioids like fentanyl. That is a staggering 69,000 Americans dead from an opioid-related overdose--more than gun violence, more than car accidents, more overdose deaths than ever before in our history. We cannot let the tragedy of COVID-19 overwhelm the daily suffering of the opioid epidemic. Sadly, for the scourge of opioid misuse and overdose in our country, there is no vaccine. My home State has been hit especially hard. In Massachusetts, more than 2,100 residents died from an opioid overdose in 2020--a 5-percent increase from the previous year--and many more struggled with opioid use disorder. Early data from 2021 shows this unfortunate trend continued through the first 9 months of last year, where 1,613 people died in Massachusetts from opioid overdoses.…”