Iran Press/ America: More US service members committed suicide in the third quarter of 2021 than the total number of those who died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Defence Department.
Thus, released Pentagon data cited by Fox News showed that 163 service members took their own lives from July to September 2021, of which 70 were active service members, 56 - reserve members, and 37 were members of the National Guard.
While this reveals a drop in suicides among active members of the military as compared to the second quarter, suicides have risen among reserve and National Guard members.
Meanwhile, in September, the total number of coronavirus deaths in the military stood at 43, said the Pentagon. By 8 January, the number had grown to reach 86, partly attributed to the surge in cases prompted by the spread of the Delta variant of the respiratory disease in the period from September 2021 to January.
Nearly twice as many members of the US military died of suicide from July to September than have died from the coronavirus during the entire pandemic.
As of January 8, 86 members of the military have died from the coronavirus.
In September, the total number of coronavirus deaths in the military was 43 and the doubling of deaths from September to January is partially due to the Delta variant spike, the Pentagon says.
A total of 476 members of the US military committed suicide in 2021 through three quarters. In 2020, Pentagon data shows that 701 service members committed suicide.
In December, the military began taking disciplinary action against US service members who had not complied with the federal government's vaccine mandate. More than 200 Marines have been booted from the United States military for refusing the vaccine.
More than 30K US military forces have committed suicide
This summer, a research paper concluded that a staggering 30,177 American active military personnel and veterans involved in post-9/11 wars are estimated to have died by suicide – a figure at least four times greater than the 7,057 service members who were killed in combat during that time.
The statistics emerged this summer in a report from the Cost of War Project – a joint research effort between Brown University and Boston University.
"Unless the US government and US society makes significant changes in the ways we manage the mental health crisis among our service members and veterans, suicide rates will continue to climb," the paper warns. "That is a cost of war we cannot accept."
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