Philadelphia, PA
The Damage Done: The Unwanted
On the streets of Philadelphia, VOA Journalists Chris Simkins and Jeff Swicord followed opioid addicts over the course of a year as the city’s most drug-infested neighborhood struggled to contain a disastrous and deadly epidemic.
“The Unwanted” is one of three such stories Swicord and Simkins reported in 2018 and 2019 to document the epidemic. Their complete series, “The Damage Done: Living America’s Opioid Nightmare,” also follows addicts, police, volunteer health care workers and community leaders in Miami and Nashville, N.C., caught in the thick of the tragedy.