Fourth Stimulus Check Update: New Payments Unlikely Amid Concerns Of Fraud, Misuse Of Funds

While some may still be holding out hope that another stimulus check could be coming amid the pinch of inflation making many Americans concerned about how they can afford basic necessities, they may need to officially give up hope, as a startling new statistic has emerged in regards to previous stimulus checks that could make the government hesitant to issue more, no matter how badly the average American may feel it is needed.

According to a study by the Ohio Attorney general’s Center for the Future of Forensic Science, a spike in opioid-related overdoses can be tied to the release of federal stimulus payments, with more people in Ohio dying from opioid overdoses at the highest point in a decade. WJW, a FOX affiliate station reports that there were 100,000 related deaths between April 2020 and April 2021, a 28% increase over the 78,085 deaths that occurred between April 2019 and April 2020.

“The link between pandemic relief money and opioid overdose deaths is now evident,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “The intent was to help Americans navigate this deadly pandemic but it also fueled a tidal wave of overdoses.”

This isn’t the first time stimulus checks have been tied to potentially negative consequences, with experts warning in December that soaring inflation can also be tied to the checks, with Riley Adams, a licensed CPA and financial analyst for Google stating that the checks are a direct cause for the inflation spike.

“Injecting more federal stimulus into the economy could stoke the flames of inflation even further,” he said at the time. “With people having more income available, consumer demand might pick up and exacerbate an already stressed supply chain.”

In addition, concerns about fraud with checks have also been high—from false claims circulating on the internet that checks are coming, to some trying to find ways to obtain stimulus money from others. The latest bit of stimulus check-related fraud was a poorly dubbed video of President Joe Biden circulating on Facebook in recent weeks, which appears to show him giving a speech and signing an order and saying “Some people will start seeing those direct deposits in their bank accounts this weekend. Payments to eligible Americans will continue throughout the course of the next several weeks.”

The video was declared false by Politfact.com, for an obviously faked voiceover by someone other than the president, as well as the fact that the words do not match up with the ones he was seemingly saying in the featured conference on the video.