“More people have died of an opioid overdose in North Carolina in recent years than have died of COVID.”
Stand up for the facts!
Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.
I would like to contribute
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein
North Carolina AG compares opioid deaths to COVID-19 deaths
If Your Time is short
- Josh Stein, North Carolina's Attorney General, said "more people have died of an opioid overdose in North Carolina in recent years than have died of COVID."
- At the time of Stein's comments, more than 13,700 North Carolinians had died of COVID-19.
- Opioid deaths don't reach that number unless you add up more than 10 years of data.
North Carolina’s top prosecutor wants his colleagues to remember that people are still struggling with drug addiction and that the pandemic has exacerbated the opioid crisis.
However, his recent comparison of COVID-19 deaths and opioid-related deaths caught our attention.
Attorney General Josh Stein was addressing North Carolina’s Council of State — which includes the governor, lieutenant governor, state treasurer and other department heads — when he made this statement:
"The opioid epidemic has become a greater crisis since the pandemic. The media doesn’t cover it as much because obviously the pandemic is paramount. But more people have died of an opioid overdose in North Carolina in recent years than have died of COVID. The number of people who have died of an opioid overdose has dramatically increased over the last year," Stein said.
Opioids are drugs naturally found in the opium poppy plant. Examples include heroin, morphine, the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl, and prescriptions such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
Is it true that more people have died of an opioid overdose in North Carolina in recent years than have died from the coronavirus?
Only if we apply the word "recent" very liberally.
What records show
On Aug. 3, the day of Stein’s statement, the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) had recorded 13,679 total COVID-19 deaths in North Carolina since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
When we asked Stein’s office about his comparison, spokesperson Nazneen Ahmed cited a DHHS estimate that 16,500 North Carolinians unintentionally overdosed and died over 19 years — between 2000 and 2019.
However, it’s difficult to determine exactly how many deaths there have been in "recent" years. The state’s health department doesn’t have confirmed opioid deaths for 2020, only provisional data. Here are the year-by-year unintentional opioid overdose deaths documented by DHHS:
2020: 2,322
2019: 1,808
2018: 1,718
2017: 1,884
Featured Fact-check
2016: 1,407
2015: 1,057
2014: 853
2013: 721
2012: 731
2011: 713
2010: 648
In total, opioid deaths hit 13,862 over that 11-year span. To put that in perspective, North Carolina recorded 6,748 COVID-19 deaths just in 2020 — nearly three times as many deaths as from opioid overdoses in the same one-year period.
DHHS records do show the number of opioid overdoses — fatal and nonfatal — have increased during the pandemic.
DHHS spokeswoman Kelly Haight said the state records show emergency department visits for overdoses have increased 20% since the early months of the pandemic in 2020. "While we likely will not have complete death data until later this fall, the provisional data that we do share for 2020 and 2021 show this increase as well," she said.
For the sake of this fact-check, though, it’s important to point out that it’s unlikely that opioid deaths exceed COVID-19 deaths in North Carolina unless you combine more than 10 years of confirmed death figures.
A chart on the CDC’s website shows slightly higher overdose death figures for North Carolina. However, as Haight pointed out, the CDC tracks deaths caused by opioids as well as other substances.
Our ruling
Stein said "More people have died of an opioid overdose in North Carolina in recent years than have died of COVID."
Excluding 2021, it appears as if we’d need to combine more than 10 years of opioid fatality data to reach the same number of coronavirus deaths North Carolina has counted since the start of the pandemic.
Preliminary opioid death numbers from 2021 aren’t available and officials haven’t finished confirming the total for 2020, so it’s possible that they’ll push the recent totals higher than expected.
But we feel like it’s a stretch for Stein to compare North Carolina’s opioid deaths over the last 11 years to COVID deaths in North Carolina, which total more than 13,700 over 18 months. We rate his statement Mostly False.
Our Sources
Video of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein speaking at the Aug. 3 Council of State meeting.
Email exchange with Josh Stein spokesperson Nazneen Ahmed.
Email exchange with Kelly Haight Connor, communications manager for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Coronavirus-related deaths in North Carolina tracked by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Unintentional opioid deaths in North Carolina on the "metrics" page of the state Department of Health and Human Services’ "Opioid Action Plan Data Dashboard."
State Department of Health and Human Services data for Emergency Department visitations for opioid overdoses in North Carolina.
Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Browse the Truth-O-Meter
More by Paul Specht
North Carolina AG compares opioid deaths to COVID-19 deaths
Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.