The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just released an alarming report about life expectancy in the United States.
USA Today reported that the CDC confirmed that life expectancy declined by one year during the first half of 2020. Reports say this has been the lowest number in 15 years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the decline.
The study also shows that life expectancy at birth dropped by a year from 2019 to 77.8 years. This number is the lowest since 2006.
“These numbers are horrifying, but not unexpected,” Dr. Alexander C. Tsai, a psychiatrist with the Center for Global Health at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, said.
“The last time [life expectancy] was 77.8 years was about a decade and a half ago — so that is a lot of public health progress that was erased in just six months,” Tsai added.
Research shows that the life expectancy of a black person dropped by 2.7 years to 72 years. Latinos experienced the second-largest drop, 1.8 years to 79.9 years.
The CDC researched men and found that the average life expectancy for males dropped to 75.1 years from 76.3 years. For women, the number declined to 80.5 years from 81.4 years.
“It was disturbing to see that gains that have been made for the Black community and decreasing the gap between life expectancy for African Americans and [white] Americans over the past six years had come to a halt,” Dr. Leon McDougle, president of the National Medical Association, said.
According to data from the CDC, Black Americans infected with COVID-19 are hospitalized at 2.9 times the rate of white Americans and die at 1.9 times the rate. However, Latinos are hospitalized at more than three times the rate and die more than twice the rate of white Americans.
Health officials are worried that life expectancy in the full year of 2020 will be much worse than the half-year data. Research shows that numbers do not reflect the end of 2020.
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