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US army suicide rates double number of deaths of soldiers caused by COVID-19

Suicide rates have continued to rise post 9/11 among American soldiers.

By World Israel News Staff

The number of deaths last summer attributed to U.S. soldiers committing suicide is double the total number of servicemen who have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Some 163 service members committed suicide during the months of July, August and September of last year, according to a Pentagon report, while a total of 86 members have died due to COVID-19. Suicide deaths include those of 70 active service members, 56 reserve members, and 37 members of the National Guard.

This is despite the number of COVID-19 deaths doubling since September due to the Delta variant. As of September, only 43 service members had died from the virus.

While figures of the last quarter of 2021 have yet to be released, it was found that a total of 476 service members had committed suicide since the beginning of the year until the third quarter. In 2020, the Pentagon listed a total of 701 for all four quarters of the year.

Over the past 20 years, suicide rates among service members have been rising, according to a paper published by U.S. universities Boston and Brown. As of June 2021, the paper estimates, a total of 30,177 soldiers have committed suicide since the post 9/11 wars.

The paper concludes that “High suicide rates mark the failure of the U.S. government and U.S. society to manage the mental health costs of our current conflicts.”