The Latest Breaking News from Steven Woolf

The homicide rate for older U.S. teenagers rose to its highest point in nearly 25 years during the COVID-19 pandemic

After decades of steady improvement, the death rate of America’s children and teens shot up between 2019 and 2021 — and COVID-19 wasn’t the reason.

LOS ANGELES — The United States has the dubious distinction of suffering the highest COVID-19 mortality rate among the world's high-income countries. But that national average — 372 deaths per 100,000 people as of last summer — hides the fact that pandemic outcomes differed greatly from state to state.

A decade after a landmark report on Americans' shorter lives, the problem has only gotten worse. Unlike other wealthy nations, U.S. life expectancy has not bounced back from the pandemic.