In March 2020, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, many people began living under stay-at-home orders. In some areas, restaurants and bars were forced to close or had limited services. These measures were meant to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. During those early pandemic days, something else happened. On-line sales of alcoholic drinks rose sharply. In the United States, online alcohol sales were up 234 percent compared to the same period a year ago. That information comes from the research company Nielsen. Victor Karpyak is a doctor and expert on drug addiction at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. state of Minnesota. He says people have long turned to alcohol to reduce stress and forget about their problems. But he warns about overusing alcohol in difficult times. This, he says, can lead to bad results.