A new study showed another disastrous effect of the pandemic on kids — a spike in gun injuries. The information comes alongside another study that showed the increasing homicide rates of kids.

The study was published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics and found that the rate of children with injuries from firearms going to children’s hospitals in the United States “significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated throughout 2021.”

The research discovered that there were 1,815 firearm injuries in a given period prior to the pandemic, while there were 2,759 during the pandemic — which was a 52% spike.

While there “were no significant differences between cohorts by sex, household income, rurality, region, mortality, or intent,” the study found that more non-Hispanic black children, kids ages 0 to 5 years old, as well as kids with public insurance were hurt by firearms during the pandemic when contrasted with kids harmed by firearms before the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic was independently associated with increased monthly firearm injuries after controlling for all covariates,” it added.

The monthly average of firearm injuries was also much higher during the period of the pandemic than it was prior to the pandemic.

“This really highlights the fact that the leading cause of death in children and adolescents is firearms,” Stephanie Iantorno, a co-author of the analysis, said, per The Wall Street Journal. “It really is a public-health crisis.”

The homicide rates of children have also been going up in recent years, a separate study found. The rate has gone up each year, “on average 4.3% since 2013,” and it increased even more from 2019 to 2020, going up 27.7%.

The study found that homicide rates have recently gone up a lot for males, black children, Hispanic kids, kids in the south, as well as those in urban and rural regions. They also went up for kids 6 to 10, 11 to 15, and 16 to 17 years of age.

It also noted that homicide rates have gone down since 1999 for girls, infants, and children between the ages of one and five years old. It has also gone down for Asian or Pacific Islander children, white children, and kids in the Northeast.

Dr. Elinore J. Kaufman, co-author of the editorial with the study, told The New York Times that homicides of younger kids typically happen inside or close to the home. They are most frequently carried out by people taking care of the children and parents and are also many times connected to neglect and child abuse and show the stressful situations of families, she said.

“I don’t think we’re doing a good job of taking care of families, and it shows,” Dr. Kaufman noted.

A journalist from a far-left news organization published the latest installment of “The Twitter Files” Tuesday afternoon and sought to portray the U.S. Military in a negative light with the information that was released.

The Intercept’s Lee Fang called his release of “The Twitter Files,” the eighth release in the series, “How Twitter Quietly Aided the Pentagon’s Covert Online PsyOp Campaign.”

The files showed that the U.S. Department of Defense created fake non-English-speaking accounts that it used to promote information in only foreign countries, mostly in the Middle East, to counter America’s enemies in the region, like Iran.

Twitter assisted the Pentagon’s efforts by giving the network of accounts special protections so they would not get flagged as spam accounts and removed from the platform.

“The Pentagon has used this network, which includes U.S. government-generated news portals and memes, in an effort to shape opinion in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, [and] Kuwait,” Fang noted, adding that the network “relentlessly pushed narratives against Russia, China, and other foreign countries.”

Nothing in the report gave even the slightest indication that the Pentagon’s efforts ever targeted Americans or anyone in the U.S. as all the evidence that was presented said that only foreign adversaries overseas were targeted.

Perhaps the one concern that the report found was that the U.S. did not do a good job of making the accounts appear authentic, as officials from social media companies apparently warned the Pentagon that if they could detect inauthentic accounts then foreign adversaries likely could as well.

Research from social media companies has found that the U.S. is by far the #1 target of foreign disinformation campaigns online, with Russia and Iran being the biggest culprits on Facebook.

Journalist Yashar Ali responded to one of Fang’s tweets that claimed that the U.S. Military’s accounts “tweeted frequently about U.S. military priorities in the Middle East, including promoting anti-Iran messages,” by noting that is not what the messages said.

“To be clear they’re not anti-Iran messages,” said Ali, whose family is from Iran. “They’re anti-Islamic Republic messages.”

To be clear they’re not anti-Iran messages.

They’re anti-Islamic Republic messages. https://t.co/Z8mBHGvYHi

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) December 20, 2022

Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs, a foreign policy expert who was a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda, responded to the thread by noting: “This isn’t obviously bad and might be very good.”

“One advantage the CCP has over the US is that the entire nation, from its ‘influencers’ to its businesses, to its academics, all serve the CCP in international relations. US media and influencers, in contrast, tend to aid narratives that undermine US interests,” Heinrichs tweeted. “The U.S. is in a vicious info war with adversaries ranging from the CCP to Russia to Iran, etc. So if a major news platform like twitter is willing to cooperate w/ the Pentagon trying to shape and bend info to serve US interests? I certainly hope they are.”

The U.S. is in a vicious info war with adversaries ranging from the CCP to Russia to Iran, etc. So if a major news platform like twitter is willing to cooperate w/ the Pentagon trying to shape and bend info to serve US interests? I certainly hope they are.

— Rebeccah Heinrichs (@RLHeinrichs) December 20, 2022

Foreign policy columnist Jason Willick responded, “This seems to be the one Twitter file that shows Twitter *supporting* the U.S., rather than subverting its constitutional principles. What’s the problem?”

“Put differently, it shows Twitter acting like an *American* company, for once,” he added. “Good.”

Put differently, it shows Twitter acting like an *American* company, for once. Good.

— Jason Willick (@jawillick) December 20, 2022