Coronavirus, Overdoses, Homicides: Life Expectancy in U.S. Drops by 1.5 Years by KRISTINA WONG for Breitbart
GNN Note – Note that cigarettes, heart-disease and obesity are all missing from the list in the headline – not an accident. /END
U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020 due mostly to the coronavirus pandemic, but drug overdoses and rising homicides played a role as well, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released Wednesday.
The 1.5-year decline in life expectancy in the U.S. was the largest one-year decline since World War II, according to the report. Close to 74 percent of the overall decline was due to the pandemic.
Now is your chance to support Gospel News Network.
We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
Drug overdoses also pushed life expectancy down, particularly for white Americans, according to the report, while rising homicides were a “small but significant reason” for the decline amongst black Americans, the report’s lead author, Elizabeth Arias, said.
The pandemic took the greatest toll on Hispanics, responsible for 90 percent of the decline in life expectancy. The coronavirus was responsible for a 68 percent decline among white Americans and a 59 percent decline among black Americans.
More than 80 percent of last year’s coronavirus deaths were people 65 and older, the CDC data shows.
However, one New York Times senior writer argued that life expectancy has been dropping for some years, even before the pandemic.
David Leonhardt tweeted that increases in mortality are concentrated among working-class Americans, especially those without a four-year degree.
Life expectancy in the U.S. was on the decline *even before Covid*: pic.twitter.com/fqPe7LihNm
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) July 22, 2021
These trends have led to a surge of “deaths of despair," from drugs, alcohol and suicide. Other health problems, including diabetes, have also surged among the working class.
Notably, the class gaps in U.S. life expectancy are starker than in most other rich countries.
— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) July 22, 2021
