Commentary
As a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows young Americans are dying at an alarming rate. The researchers, all medical doctors, found that, between 2020 and 2022, the mortality rate for Americans aged between 1 and 19 shot up by almost 20 percent. As the study emphasizes, COVID-19 can’t be blamed for the sharp spike. It simply “poured fuel” on an already existing fire.
Likely contributors, according to the paper, include ease of access to firearms and a mental health crisis among children and adolescents that appears to be getting much worse. Another reason cited involves the increased use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin. Overdose death rates for individuals between the ages of 10 and 19, note the authors, began increasing shortly before the pandemic began….