American children and teenagers are dying at the highest rate in nearly 15 years.

Wall Street Journal - Between 2019 and 2020, the overall mortality rate for ages 1 to 19 rose by 10.7%, and increased by an additional 8.3% the following year—the highest increase for two consecutive years in the half-century that the government has publicly tracked such figures—according to an analysis of federal death statistics recently published in JAMA. An increased number of homicides, drug overdoses, car accidents and suicides helped fuel the reversal after decades of advances in healthcare and safety steadily drove down death rates. The uptick among younger Americans accelerated in 2020—less from Covid-19 itself than from the pandemic’s social disruption that exacerbated public-health problems, including worsening anxiety and depression. Greater access to firearms, dangerous driving and more lethal narcotics also contributed.