How can RFK Jr ‘Make America healthy again’? He is ignoring the two biggest killers of American children | Devi Sridhar

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How can RFK Jr ‘Make America healthy again’? He is ignoring the two biggest killers of American children | Devi Sridhar

“MAke America Healthy Again ”. We can all put ourselves behind this slogan and agree that much more could be made to improve the health of people living in the United States. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the American secretary for health and social services, recently published a report detailing the challenge of American health. Systemic social and economic problems that stimulate a large part of the health problems of the United States.

But what surprised me more is a notable omission of the two biggest killers of American children. American children are not just more unhealthy. They are more likely to die in the first 19 years of life due to firearms – homicides and suicides – or in a road accident than children in comparable countries. How to write a whole report without mentioning these factors and how unique the United States is in the burden of disability and death they cause?

Take rifles. In 2020, firearms injuries exceeded car accidents as the main cause of death in the United States for children and adolescents. From 2019 to 2021, there was a 23% increase in fire -by -arms deaths among Americans of all ages, while death deaths in children and adolescents increased by 50% during the same period. For 100,000 people, the United States in 2019 had almost 100 times more firearms than Great Britain. Even countries like Canada, which ranks in the world’s top 10 in civilian firearms, has about seven times less firearms than the United States, and about half of many suicides involving firearms – both adjusted to the population. The more positive aberrant values include Japan and South Korea, which have almost deaths linked to firearms each year. During the four years between 2020 and 2024, the United States had an average of two mass shots per day. They happen so often that the media often does not report them anymore. This is not a news. It’s just a daily life.

Unlike countries like Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Colombia – to choose some examples – legislation to regulate firearms, in particular handguns, has remained in the political dead end. The result is a growing feeling of despair, complacency and even acceptance when children die in the shot after shooting. Being shot at school is one of the most likely ways for a child to die in the United States, but firearms are not mentioned at all in the movement “Make America Healthy Again”.

The second cause of death for American children is road accidents. In 2021, 43,000 people died in the United States in road accidents, compared to less than 3,000 people in Japan. Adjusted for the population, the American rate was 12.7 deaths per 100,000 people against 2,24 of Japan. This difference is not random: the size of the vehicle plays a big role. The best -selling motor vehicle in Japan, a compact class known as the Kei car, weighs approximately 1,100 kg and is 3.3 m long. This is compared to the United States, where the most popular vehicle (a van) measures 2,900 kg and 5.8 m long. This has an impact on road safety. A study by the Journal of Safety Research revealed that children are eight times more likely to be killed in a collision with a SUV than in a accident with a standard car. These are not only the size and weight of these cars, but also the amount of limited vision, especially for children who could be near the vehicle.

The identification of the main causes of the invalidity and death of children is a step. In the United States, deaths by firearms and the roads are so common that they sometimes seem to have faded. But data show that the difference between the United States and other countries is striking, and it is part of the role of public health agencies such as RFK JR to make these problems more visible. Of course, trying to find solutions, especially those that could be considered in violation of individual freedoms to have a pistol or drive the vehicle they like, is much more difficult. There are political measures that can be taken, as shown by Japan, Great Britain and other countries that have prioritized health and well-being.

If the American government really wants to “make America again healthy”, it must first recognize the brutal assessment that accidents of armed violence and road accidents take its inhabitants, especially children. Without confronting these realities from the front – and without change in systemic policy – no vision of a healthier, the United States can succeed. After all, you can only be healthy if you are alive.