In Canada, people who inject drugs have led long, hard-fought, and ongoing campaigns for human rights-based drug policies and health services. Unfortunately, this community activism has often been met with varying degrees of government and healthcare system inaction.
I have worked as a nurse in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, or what we call DTES, for almost 20 years, first for the University of British Columbia and now for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, based at Pender Community Health Centre.
Much of what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the esteemed head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), learned about clinical trials for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), he learned from sparring with HIV community activists.
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has proven to be a struggle for everyone, regardless of their lifestyle, but people who use drugs are finding it especially difficult to navigate these unprecedented waters. Whether they’re currently using, en route to recovery, or in active recovery, this virus has and will continue to challenge these individuals.
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has changed our entire way of life. Like all CATIE staff, I am playing my small part in the public health response by complying with physical distancing guidance and working from home. I know that many of the people we work with have had their lives disrupted in much more serious ways – losing jobs, managing complex changes to service delivery, or being redeployed to the front lines of the COVID-19 response.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has everyone extremely worried, and understandably so. But there is another public health emergency that still hasn’t been resolved – the overdose crisis. And COVID-19 is threatening to create two epidemics among people who use drugs, unless we take immediate action.
