- Life expectancy in the United States fell by nearly two years in 2020 compared to 2019.
- People of color saw a higher drop in life expectancy.
- Life expectancy in the United States is almost five years lower than in 16 peer countries.
Special measures have been taken since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, but new
Scientists calculated life expectancy in the United States based on official deaths and found that life expectancy decreased by an average of nearly two years.
“The resulting reduction in life expectancy was the largest since World War II and far greater than the losses experienced by other countries facing the same virus,” said Virginia Commonwealth University’s Population Health. Dr. Stephen Woolf, a professor of health inequalities, told Healthline about a study that helped behave.
“We continue to be amazed by the massive loss of life that the United States has experienced,” Woolf said. “This far outweighs the losses in other rich countries and is a terrifying result among people of color.”
The team found that in 2020, life expectancy in the United States decreased by 1.87 years compared to 2019. This decline was greater in the black and Hispanic communities.
Woolf and his team calculated a decline in the Hispanic population of 3.70 and a non-Hispanic black population of just over three years between 2019 and 2020.
They also found that the decline in life expectancy was much greater in the United States compared to 16 peer countries. They estimated that life expectancy in 2020 would be about 4.7 years shorter than the average for these peer countries.
According to Woolf, this is a “permanent” inter-colored race, where the health of the United States has deteriorated for decades compared to the country and is a legacy of systematic racism and exclusion policies. It happens after health inequalities.
“These systemic problems will persist and more excess deaths will occur unless the United States seriously considers addressing the root cause,” he said.
“We previously estimated that the decline in life expectancy in 2020 was historic, and that Hispanic and black Americans experienced significant losses,” Woolf said.
However, analysis shows that the country’s life expectancy decline is only 0.58 years, and no country has experienced the decline seen in the United States.
Researchers have found that social welfare spending in the United States is unfair and not beneficial to children and families. The United States also lacks universal health insurance and offers weaker public health and security protection.
According to the authors of the study, this is in contrast to policies adopted by US peers, including Israel, Germany and Taiwan.
Researchers have found that years of racist health inequality due to systematic racism, segregation, and exclusive policies play the strongest role in reducing life expectancy in the black and Hispanic populations. I found that I was there.
Peter Pitts, a former FDA Associate Commissioner and director of the Public Interest Medical Center, explained the implications of these data.
According to Pitts, there was also a failure in public health communication when reaching people at the highest risk of serious COVID-19.
“We talked a lot about why the color community has a high COVID-19 infection rate, all of which are true, but for an understanding of how to deal with infection within those color communities. I didn’t speak, “he said.
Better communication may have helped people understand the risk of illness.
“Did we not take the next level of communication and say which ethnic groups are overrated in the risky groups?” He said.
Researchers have analyzed public health data and found that life expectancy in the United States dropped sharply between 2019 and 2020, with the most serious impact on the minority population.
Experts say systematic racism and lack of universal health insurance in the United States contributed to this decline.
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