PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) In a timely and eye-opening new study, researchers at Temple University found a correlation between measures taken by the City of Philadelphia to combat COVID-19 and the surge in gun violence.
A team led by Dr. Jessica Beard, assistant professor of surgery and director of trauma research at Lewis Katz School of Medicine, wanted to know why they were seeing such a huge spike in gun violence patients. It was in March actually that we saw a significant and sustained increase, nearly double of our violence in the City of Philadelphia, said Dr. Beard.
Using public data from the Philadelphia police, from January 2016 through November 26, 2020, they found an alarming correlation.
This research pretty empirically shows that the increase or the uptick in gun violence happened following the enactment of the containment policies, she told the news outlet.