The death rate for US children has surged by 25 percent over the past decade, according to a study published last month by pediatrician Dr. Christopher Forrest and colleagues in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even as the child mortality rate has slowly fallen in other developed countries, it has surged in the US, along with every other indicator of chronic illness.

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    It’s not actually healthcare that’s making the difference, though (at least not for children >1 year old; not sure about infants). The real causes of the high death rate are cultural: shootings, car wrecks (i.e. car-dependent infrastructure), and drugs.

    Basically, the actual policy changes we need to fix this problem are:

    • economic reform to reduce inequality (which is the root cause of the despair that leads to drug addiction and violence), and
    • zoning reform to abolish unwalkable low-density sprawl.

    (Side note: although I posted the chart from the article, I don’t support its bias: “firearms” and “homicide” should not be separate categories. Attributing the problem to access to guns is bullshit; there are other places that have similar access but don’t have the death rate. The real difference is that people in those places simply don’t want to kill kids as much Americans do to begin with.)

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      Net differences in rates =/= rates.

      Over the last 30 years cars are the largest killers of kids.

      I would say gun violence taking the lead is actually due to work from home reducing car traffic and therefore collisions.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      USA is a society of violence, and guns is a significant part of that.
      USA needs both socioeconomic reform and much stricter gun control laws.
      Just because you can’t blame guns alone, it doesn’t follow that guns aren’t a significant part of the problem.
      It’s both the mentality like stand your ground, and 3 times and you’re out, and the guns that enable extreme violence extremely easy.
      Already common rhetoric is extremely violent in USA, with “the war” on everything. How’s that war on drugs going? When did it begin? Wasn’t it in the 80’s? That’s nearing a half a century war now! No other country in the world has been at continuous war for that long.

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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      29 days ago

      LMFAO “the main reason is guns, but I don’t like that so let’s mix the data into other categories to obfuscate the issue so no one else can use it to support gun reform”

      Yeah, other countries have access to guns, but they also have a lot more licensing requirements and restrictions. That keeps guns away from idiots, unsafe people, and criminals. That’s the difference, gun reform.

      You 2A people have zero reading comprehension because I’ve never seen one of you in a well regulated militia.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        Do you even begin to comprehend how absolutely sick and twisted it is to be like “hurr durr let’s make society so toxic that everybody wants to murder everybody else and that’s A-OK as long as we don’t let them access easy means to do it!”?

        WTF is wrong with you, that you refuse to acknowledge – let alone work to solve – the real problem?!

        • Hacksaw@lemmy.ca
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          29 days ago

          Buddy, the average American isn’t any more depraved as anyone else. The US just gives guns to people who shouldn’t have them and then provides them no training nor help with their problems.

          • 3abas@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            Buddy, the US is quickly becoming a third world country. Yes, mass school shooting are normalized but that’s the symptom not the root problem.

            nor help with their problems

            See? You identified it yourself. Universal healthcare that includes quality mental health care that isn’t driven by profit is the solution to the listed problems, I’m not sure why they listed drugs and failed to recognize healthcare as the solution that too, but people turn to drugs to drown the depression they can’t treat in a healthy way.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              28 days ago

              I’m not sure why they listed drugs and failed to recognize healthcare as the solution that too

              Because pumping people full of Prozac instead of fentanyl (or whatever they turned to to cope) does fuck-all to solve them having to juggle three jobs while still barely being able to afford rent on their shitty apartment and being justifiably in despair about it.

              The real problem isn’t a chemical imbalance if your life actually does suck!