More Time at Home Meant More Kids Died of Gun Violence During the Early Pandemic
Child deaths due to gun violence increased during the pandemic by more than one death every day, compared with previous years, according to new research. From the start of the pandemic until the end of 2021, there were more than 700 additional child deaths from gun violence than typically would have occurred.“That number is on par with the number of childhood deaths from COVID-19 itself,” says Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD, who works as professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School and is one of the study authors.The psychological strain of the pandemic on families, combined with school closures, meant adolescents were spending more time at home, where guns are more likely to be present. “This is just one more feather in the argument that the pandemic has had…