Pandemic Cuts Life Expectancy In US By An Alarming Full Year: CDC
The rapid decline in the first half of 2020 -- the biggest since World War II -- was even worse for some racial groups: Black Americans lost nearly three years of life expectancy while Hispanics lost two, according to CDC estimates. And the full 2020 numbers are expected to be even more catastrophic.
Life expectancy in the US dropped a full year in the first half of 2020, according to a report published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. Experts say that Covid-19 was a significant factor contributing to the decline. (McPhillips, 2/18)
Life expectancy at birth for the total U.S. population was 77.8 years 鈥 a decline of 1 year from 78.8 in 2019. For males, the life expectancy at birth was 75.1 鈥 a decline of 1.2 years from 2019. For females, life expectancy declined to 80.5 years, a 0.9 year decrease from 2019. Deaths from COVID-19 are the main factor in the overall drop in U.S. life expectancy between January and June 2020, the CDC says. But it's not the only one: a surge in drug overdose deaths are a part of the decline, too. (Wamsley, 2/18)
Life expectancy for Black populations declined the most聽from 2019聽鈥 by 2.7 years,聽to 72 years 鈥撀爄ts lowest level since 2001. Latinos experienced the second-biggest decline, falling 1.9 years since 2019 to a life expectancy of 79.9 years, lower than when it was first recorded in 2006.聽(Rodriguez, 2/18)
鈥淭his is a huge decline,鈥 said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. 鈥淵ou have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.鈥 Other health experts say it shows the profound impact of COVID-19, not just on deaths directly due to infection but also from heart disease, cancer and other conditions. (Marchione, 2/18)
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty jolting,鈥 said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who is compiling the same data for all of 2020. 鈥淭his is a huge impact.鈥 Life expectancy at birth, considered a reliable barometer of a nation鈥檚 health, has risen steadily in the United States since the middle of the 20th century, with small annual decreases in recent years caused mainly by 鈥渄eaths of despair鈥 鈥 drug overdoses, alcoholism and suicide. Flat and modestly declining life expectancy from 2015 to 2017 caused considerable concern among public health experts after decades of progress against heart disease, cancer and other maladies. (Bernstein, 2/18)
