Wang QQ, Kaelber DC, Rong Xu R, et al. - In order to gain data on risks, disparity, and outcomes for COVID-19 in individuals suffering from substance use disorders (SUD), researchers looked at the electronic health records data of 73,099,850 unique patients, of whom 12,030 had a diagnosis of COVID-19, in this retrospective case-control study. Significantly raised risk for COVID-19 was observed among patients with a recent diagnosis of SUD (within past year), with individuals having opioid use disorders (OUD) feeling the strongest effect, followed by those with tobacco use disorder (TUD). A significantly higher prevalence of chronic kidney, liver, lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity and cancer was observed among patients with SUD vs without SUD. Among patients with recent diagnosis of SUD, significantly higher risk of COVID-19 was noted among African Americans vs Caucasians, with strongest effect for OUD. Relative to general COVID-19 patients, significantly worse outcomes were reported among COVID-19 patients with SUD; African Americans with COVID-19 and SUD had worse outcomes than Caucasians. Findings thereby suggest individuals with SUD, especially individuals with OUD and African Americans, are at raised risk for COVID-19 and its adverse outcomes, emphasizing the necessity if screening and treating individuals with SUD as part of the strategy to control the pandemic while ensuring no disparities in access to healthcare support.