President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he will hold a press conference the same day addressing the country's ongoing opioid crisis.
"I will be holding a major briefing on the Opioid crisis, a major problem for our country, today at 3:00 P.M. in Bedminster, N.J.," Trump said in a Twitter post around 7:00 a.m.
I will be holding a major briefing on the Opioid crisis, a major problem for our country, today at 3:00 P.M. in Bedminster, N.J.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2017
About 20 minutes earlier, Trump had tweeted a "Fox & Friends" segment on a new study showing America's opioid crisis is even worse than initially reported.
The University of Virginia report examined death certificates from 2008 through 2014 and concluded the mortality rates were 24 percent higher for opioids and 22 percent higher for heroin than had been previously reported.
Increases in heroin death rates were most severely underreported in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey, Louisiana, and Alabama, according to a summary of the report by NBC News.
The overdose death rates are highest for people ages 25 to 64 in the Rust Belt, in Appalachia and some western states.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced an investigative unit meant to catch doctors over-prescribing opioids for profit.
Trump's opioid commission asked the president to declare the opioid crisis a national health emergency.
A study from Generations United estimates that over two and a half million children are living with a relative other than their parents due to the opioid crisis.