epidemic – Page 4 – Desdemona Despair

Mass killings in the United States by day of year, 2006-2023. 2023 data as of April 29. The year 2023 saw more mass killings than any other year except 2009 since data collection started in 2006. A mass killing is defined as an incident in which four or more victims, not counting the assailant, are killed. Data: The AP/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killings database. Graphic: AP

April 30, 2023

Frequent shootings in 2023 put US mass killings on a record pace – “Nobody should be shocked. I visit my daughter in a cemetery. Outrage doesn’t begin to describe how I feel.”

By Stefanie Dazio and Larry Fenn 21 April 2023 LOS ANGELES (AP) – The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year. The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the […]

Monthly U.S. poverty rates by race/ethnicity, 2020-2022. Graphic: Center on Poverty and Social Policy

April 19, 2023

Poverty is the 4th greatest cause of U.S. deaths – “Poverty silently killed 10 times as many people as all the homicides in 2019. And yet, homicide, firearms, and suicide get vastly more attention.”

By David Danelski 17 April 2023 (UCR) – Poverty has long been linked to shorter lives. But just how many deaths in the United States are associated with poverty? The number has been elusive – until now. A University of California, Riverside, (UCR) paper published Monday, 17 April 2023, in the Journal of the American […]

Numbered tags are seen underneath the wings of this California Condor photographed north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. There are 116 birds currently living in the wild north of the canyon along the Arizona Strip and in southwestern Utah. Photo: Jim Shane / Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

April 16, 2023

Avian flu is killing endangered California condors at alarming rate

By Dinah Voyles Pulver 12 April 2023 (USA TODAY) – The avian influenza stalking wild and domestic bird flocks across the country has killed at least six endangered California condors since March and is suspected of killing another dozen. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday it’s now attributing all condor deaths in the […]

A strain of Candida auris cultured in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory. The CDC reports that the fungus is causing infections in healthcare facilities.Photo: Shawn Lockhart / Associated Press

April 16, 2023

This rapidly spreading deadly fungus is a warning about climate change

By Arjun V.K. Sharma 12 April 2023 (Los Angeles Times) – Last month, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change charted global temperatures to be 1.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and on a destructive trajectory to surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the early 2030s. This intersects surprisingly with another piece of news: the […]

Average age at death in U.S. counties, 2020. Data: CDC Death Records. The U.S. is experiencing the greatest gap in life expectancy across regions in the last 40 years. Americans born in certain areas of Mississippi and Florida may die 20 years younger than their peers born in parts of Colorado and California. Graphic: Jeremy Ney / American Inequality

April 15, 2023

Americans are dying younger, and where you live makes a big difference – Americans born in Mississippi and Florida may die 20 years younger than their peers born in Colorado and California

By Jeremy Ney 12 April 2023 (TIME) – The average U.S. life expectancy has hit its worst decline in 100 years and America’s standing is dismal among peer nations. But the average obscures a more complex story. The United States is facing the greatest divide in life expectancy across regions in the last 40 years. Research from American […]

Gun deaths among U.S. children and teens under 18, 1999-2021. The number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the United States increased 50 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest annual mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Graphic: Pew Research Center

April 15, 2023

Gun deaths among U.S. children and teens rose 50 percent in two years – Homicide was the largest single category of gun deaths among children and teens in 2021, accounting for 60 percent, followed by suicide at 32 percent and accidents at 5 percent

By John Gramlich 6 April 2023 (Pew Research Center) – The number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the United States increased 50% between 2019 and 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest annual mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2019, before the coronavirus […]

Maternal mortality rates, by race and Hispanic origin: United States, 2018–2021. In 2021, 1,205 women died of maternal causes in the United States compared with 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019. The maternal mortality rate for 2021 was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with a rate of 23.8 in 2020 and 20.1 in 2019. Graphic: CDC

April 4, 2023

Maternal deaths in the U.S. spiked in 2021, CDC reports – “There is just no reason for a rich country to have poor maternal mortality”

By Selena Simmons-Duffin and Carmel Wroth 16 March 2023 (NPR) – In 2021, the U.S. had one of the worst rates of maternal mortality in the country’s history, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report found that 1,205 people died of maternal causes in the U.S. in 2021. That […]

Quantities of cocaine seized in selected markets, in comparison with global cocaine manufacture, 2005-2021. Graphic: UNODC

March 30, 2023

Cocaine production is at its highest level on record, UN says – Coca cultivation soared 35 per cent from 2020 to 2021, a record high and the sharpest year-to-year increase since 2016

By Natasha Turak 16 March 2023 (CNBC) – Cocaine production is at its highest level on record, with demand rebounding post-pandemic and new trafficking hubs emerging, a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found. The U.N.’s Global Report on Cocaine 2023 says new hubs for trafficking in the multibillion-dollar industry have […]

Percentage of U.S. high school students who experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness during the past year, 2011–2021. Graphic: CDC / Youth Risk Behavior Survey

February 27, 2023

Teen girls in U.S. report highest levels of sadness and sexual violence in a decade, CDC Says – “It’s just devastating to think about the young women in our lives that we know”

By Madison Muller 13 February 2023 (Bloomberg) – Almost three in five U.S. teen girls reported feeling sad or hopeless in 2021, the highest level seen in a decade and nearly twice the rate among teenage boys. Rates of reported sexual violence and suicide risk rose among teen girls during the same year, according to […]

Domestic extremist-related killing incidents in the U.S. by decade. The recent surge of extremist-related mass killings is immediately obvious. From the 1970s through the 2000s, extremist mass killing incidents consistently occurred at a relatively low level—from two to seven incidents a decade (although, it should be noted that, because of the difficulty in determining which left-wing extremist bomb attacks in the 1970s and 1980s were intended to cause mass casualties—many were actually aimed at property and warnings were telephoned to targets beforehand—it is possible that the number of such incidents may be undercounted here). Graphic: ADL

February 27, 2023

U.S. mass killings linked to extremism spiked over last decade – “It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings”

By Lindsay Whitehurst 23 February 2023 WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any other 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. The report, provided to The Associated Press ahead of […]