//“The stakes are life and death”: Addiction treatment’s Covid-19 challenge

“The stakes are life and death”: Addiction treatment’s Covid-19 challenge

A door is painted with a message to stop selling heroin on a street in a neighborhood with a high rate of poverty and illegal drug use on October 14, 2016, in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The government eased access to drug addiction treatment during the pandemic. Now that could go away.

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced much of the US to lock down in the spring of 2020, officials and experts worried the necessary social distancing measures would make another public health crisis — the opioid epidemic — worse. Addiction treatment is traditionally done in person, and restrictions on gatherings and closed businesses would make it much less accessible.

So the federal government responded by easing rules for getting into treatment virtually — making it easier for treatment providers to retain patients and attract new ones. Even before