Spoiling the averages
Life expectancy in the US has fallen.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed the average US lifespan dropped from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020. Researchers said the pandemic was mostly to blame for the decline, with record-high drug deaths also noted as a contributing factor.
The data comes amid a resurgence of Covid-19 cases across the country. Hospital rates are also on the rise with daily deaths now almost 50% higher than last week, according to officials.
More than 600,000 Americans have died so far during the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s not what they mean – they mean from or because of the pandemic. I know this because that’s the number. I think they’re avoiding asserting causality, for some reason, but the result is just confusion. Many more than 600k of us have died during the pandemic.
The report, released on Tuesday, also noted that racial and ethnic disparities in life expectancy had grown during the pandemic.
Hispanic men saw the sharpest decline – with 3.7 years knocked off their average life expectancy within the year alone. Black American men also saw a 3.3-year drop, down to an average of just 68 years. Black and Hispanic women also saw sharper declines than both white men and white women.
“It is impossible to look at these findings and not see a reflection of the systemic racism in the US,” Lesley Curtis, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, told NPR.
Cue the complaints about critical race theory.
I wonder if they have the stats for Dem vs. Rep voters.
I think to clarify even more, they should say that more than 600,00K died from COVID-19, because there were as many as 78,000 more drug deaths due to the pandemic in 2020 than in 2019. This was due to factors such as treatment facilities shut down, isolation due to lockdowns, etc.
I would be surprised if people made as much effort to get the vaccine to poor communities, and if they were black or Hispanic, even less effort. Add to that a (reasonable) tendency to distrust both the government and the medical establishment, and you end up with escalating numbers of deaths and infections among people of color. I wonder if anyone has checked on increased rates of economic hardship and bankruptcy?
Blame systemic racism and neglect poverty, of course…
(Yes I know that race is often a factor in the Sorting Hat, but with that kind of statement you’d assume there’s something strange about blacks and Latinos that makes them more susceptible to disease)