Child deaths rose by a tenth to a 15-year high fueled by pandemic suicides, overdoses and homicides.
Between 2019 and 2020, the death rate for 1- to 19-year-olds climbed 10.7% and rose another 8.3% the following year, according to a new study that analyzed CDC figures.
According to paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March.
This staggering reversal in pediatric mortality was not caused by COVID but by skyrocketing violence, self-harm and substance abuse – with guns being the leading cause of death.
The pandemic – which has strained mental health services and isolated children at home – has ‘poured oil on a fire’ that has been burning among America’s youth for at least a decade, the study warned. .
Between 2019 and 2020, the death rate for 1- to 19-year-olds climbed 10.7% and rose another 8.3% the following year, according to a new study that analyzed CDC figures.
The death rate from COVID between the ages of 1 and 19 was 0.24 deaths per 100,000 in 2020 – but this is dwarfed by the surge in injury deaths which was 12 times higher at 2.80 deaths per 100,000
The death rate from COVID between the ages of 1 and 19 was 0.24 deaths per 100,000 in 2020 – but this was dwarfed by the surge in injury deaths which was 12 times higher at 2.80 deaths per 100,000.
“I haven’t seen this in my career,” said lead author Steven Woolf, MD, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University.
“For decades, the overall death rate among American children has steadily declined, thanks to advances in the prevention and treatment of diseases such as premature birth, childhood cancer and birth defects.
“We are now seeing a dramatic reversal in this trajectory, which means our children are now less likely to reach adulthood. It is a flashing red light. We need to understand the causes and address them immediately to protect our children.
Suicides among children aged 10 to 19 began to rise in 2007, and homicide rates in this age group began to rise in 2013.
Since then, the suicide death rate has increased by 70% and the homicide rate has increased by a third.
Woolf said “likely contributors to both trends include increased access to guns and a worsening mental health crisis among children and adolescents.”
During the pandemic, demand for mental health support has far outstripped supply, leaving young patients particularly vulnerable. Children as young as eight have gone to doctors with suicidal thoughts.
Lois Lee, a pediatric emergency physician at Boston Children’s Hospital who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention, said The Wall Street Journal“We are seeing younger and younger patients arriving with mental health crises, and even those 8 to 10 years old arriving with suicidal thoughts.”
Opioid abuse, exacerbated by the fentanyl crisis, increased, and overdose rates among children aged 10 to 19 began to rise just before the pandemic.
“While the pandemic did not initiate these trends, it may have added fuel to the fire,” Woolf argues.
Injury mortality between 10 and 19 years old increased by 23% between 2019 and 2020.
The number of children aged 10-19 who have attempted suicide by poisoning has increased by more than 70% in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic figures
Many more children have started attempting suicide by poisoning during the COVID pandemic. The number of attempts has increased by about 30%, reports the CDC
Much of this rise was due to homicides which rose 39% and overdose deaths which climbed 114%.
In young children aged 1 to 9, injuries explained two-thirds of the spike in deaths in 2021.
Guns “play a central role in this crisis,” Woolf said. Firearms are the leading cause of death among young people aged 1 to 19 and accounted for almost half of the increase in all-cause mortality in 2020.
“Current efforts to understand gun violence, overcome political impasse, and adopt sensible gun policies are not advancing at the speed required by pediatric suicides and homicides,” Woolf wrote.
He added: “Medicine and public health have made remarkable progress in reducing pediatric death rates, but the lives they saved are now being put at risk by human-made pathogens.
“Bullets, drugs and automobiles are now causing enough youth deaths to increase all-cause death rates, the largest such increase in recent memory.
“Without bold action to reverse the trend, the risk of children not reaching adulthood may increase.”
