Why isn’t alcohol seen as a public health emergency?

VideoSTATus Report Why isn’t alcohol seen as a public health emergency? STAT reporters explore how such a dangerous substance be treated with such ambivalence Manage alerts for this article Email this article Share this article By Alex HoganMay 15, 2026 Senior Multimedia Producer Alex Hogan[email protected]Alex Hogan is STAT’s senior multimedia producer and host of STATus Report, STAT’s weekly video series. You can follow him on Bluesky. Alcohol kills more Americans than any other drug by a wide margin. But discussions about substance use epidemics in the U.S. are usually centered around drugs like fentanyl or meth. In fact, most people in the U.S. do not see alcohol is as much of a public health problem at all. My STAT colleagues, reporters Isabella Cueto and Lev Facher, spent months examining this contradiction — how can such a dangerous substance be treated with such ambivalence? Earlier this week they launched a new STAT series “The Deadliest Drug” that aims to answer that question.Advertisement In this week’s STATus Report, I chat with Cueto and Facher about their reporting, what they learned about booze in the U.S., and what, if anything, can be done to tackle the harms of alcohol in this country. addiction, chronic disease, public health Submit a correction requestReprints Alex Hogan Senior Multimedia Producer Alex Hogan is STAT’s senior multimedia producer and host of STATus Report, STAT’s weekly video series. You can follow him on Bluesky. Newsletter Understand how science, health policy, and medicine shape the world every day Recommended STATus Report May 8, 2026 Why we left the FDA: Six former officials share their stories STATus Report April 24, 2026 Psychedelics get a boost from the White House Advertisement STATus Report April 10, 2026 How sports betting apps hook users STATus Report April 2, 2026 STAT reporter goes up against radiologists to spot deepfake X-rays STATus Report March 26, 2026 Health influencers talk social media and mental health Subscriber Picks