Florida Suicides Decline 13 Percent in 2020 Despite Coronavirus Pandemic

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Florida saw a significant decline in suicides last year, according to new data, despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figure fell by 13 percent statewide compared to 2019, according to preliminary Medical Examiner data obtained by The Miami Herald, and by 16 percent compared to 2018. The rate fell even more significantly in Miami, by 20 percent compared to 2019 and by 25 percent compared to 2018.

Suicide figures for the United States, which are maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will not be released until later this spring.

However, Florida’s data runs contrary to a survey conducted by the CDC last June, in the early days of the pandemic, that found a growing number of young Americans were considering suicide. Of those aged 18-24, 10.7 percent said they “seriously considered” suicide in the 30 days before they were surveyed, more than double the 4.3 percent who said they had considered it during the preceding 12 months in 2018.

The prospect that suicides might increase as a result of lockdown orders around the country has been heavily politicized from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. “I mean, we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks,” Dr. Mike deBoisblanc, the head of trauma at a California medical center, told a local news outlet in May. The assessment was cited by Fox News hosts including Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade — and quickly led BuzzFeed News to obtain a clarification from deBoisblanc stating that he “he didn’t know what the true numbers were.”

Experts have warned that it will take more time to take an accurate toll of the pandemic’s cost, particularly until the economy recovers.

“I would say we’re probably going to have to wait at least another year before we are actually able to tell what was the effect of the pandemic,” Dr. Scott Poland, a psychologist and co-director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University, told The Herald. “I suspect the suicide rates will increase.”