More than four (4) times as many people died from drug overdose (OD) than from homicide in the first month of 2021.
96,779 drug overdose deaths were reported from March 2020 to March 2021.
OD death totals during this period are 36.1% higher than the previous annual high from December 2018 to December 2019 (71,130 deaths).
Preliminary reports indicate the number of drug overdose deaths in America increased 29.6% in 2020.
In January 2021, drug overdose deaths exceeded homicides by 306.7%.
Motor vehicle accidents and suicides combined killed 84.5% as many as ODs.
https://drugabusestatistics.org/drug-overdose-deaths/
I don’t know what all that has to do with suicides.
I did just find data from 2000 to 2019 on intentional drug overdoes suicides. There has been a sharp rise in this for decades.
So for there to be excess such, intentional drug overdose numbers have to climb above the curve, which regression suggests is exponential pre Covid. That’s a hard curve to get above.
Haven’t seen any studies suggesting the virus in the brain affects decision making as regards suicide.