NEW YORK – U.S. life expectancy fell for a second straight year in 2021, dropping nearly a year from 2020, according to a government report released Wednesday.
In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated American life expectancy has been shortened by nearly three years. The last comparable decline occurred in the early 1940s, during the height of World War II.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blamed COVID-19 for about half of the decline in 2021, a year in which vaccinations became widely available but new coronavirus variants caused waves of hospitalizations and deaths. Other contributors to the decline are long-term problems: drug overdoses, heart disease, suicide, and chronic liver disease.
“It’s a sad situation. It was bad before and it’s gotten worse,” said Samuel Preston, a demographer at the University of Pennsylvania.
Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year can expect to live, given death rates at that time. It’s “the most fundamental indicator of population health in this country,” said Robert Hummer, a University of North Carolina researcher focused on population health patterns.
WHICH STATE HAS THE LONGEST LIFE EXPECTANCY?: See where yours ranks on this list.
Life expectancy in the U.S. has been rising for decades, but progress stalled before the pandemic.
It was 78 years and 10 months in 2019. In 2020 it fell to 77 years. Last year it fell to about 76 years, one month.
The last time it was this low was in 1996.
The decline during the pandemic was worse for some racial groups, and some gaps widened. For example, life expectancy for Native Americans and Alaska Natives has dropped more than 6 ½ years since the pandemic began, to 65 years. During the same period, life expectancy for Asian Americans dropped by about two years to 83 ½.
Experts say there are many possible reasons for such disparities, including a lack of access to high-quality health care, lower vaccination rates and a greater share of the population in lower-paying jobs that required them to keep working when the pandemic was at its worst .
The new report is based on preliminary data. Life expectancy can be changed with the addition of more data and further analysis. For example, the CDC initially said that life expectancy in 2020 decreased by about one year and six months. But after more death reports and analyzes came in, it ended up being about a year and 10 months.
But the declines in 2020 and 2021 are likely to stand as the first two consecutive years of declining life expectancy in the U.S. since the early 1960s, CDC officials said.
• Life expectancy for women in the United States fell by about 10 months, from just under 80 years in 2020 to just over 79 in 2021. Life expectancy for men fell a full year, from about 74 years to 73.
• COVID-19 deaths were the main reason for the decline. The second biggest contributor was deaths from unintentional injuries — primarily from drug overdoses, which killed a record 107,000 Americans last year.
• White people experienced the second largest decline among racial and ethnic groups, with life expectancy falling one year to about 76 years, five months. Black Americans had the third-largest decline, falling more than eight months, to 70 years, 10 months
• Latin Americans had seen a huge drop in life expectancy by 2020 – four years. But in 2021, their life expectancy dropped by about two months to about 77 years, seven months. Preston believes that good vaccination rates among Hispanics played a role.
‘EXPECTED TO COMPLETE THE 10 SECONDS’: Balancing on one leg can predict likelihood of living or dying, study says
The report also suggests that gains against suicide are being undone.
American suicides rose from the early 2000s until 2018. But they fell slightly in 2019 and then more in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. Experts had wondered if it might have been related to a phenomenon seen in the early stages of wars and national disasters, where people come together and support each other.
The new report said suicide contributed to the drop in life expectancy in 2021, but it did not provide details. According to preliminary figures from a public CDC database, the number of American suicides rose by about 2,000 to 48,000 last year. The US suicide rate also rose from 13.5 per 100,000 to 14.1 – bringing it back to where it was in 2018.
Can the coronavirus survive on surfaces?
It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it appears to behave like other coronaviruses. A recent review of the survival of human coronaviruses on surfaces found great variability, ranging from 2 hours to 9 days (11). The survival time depends on a number of factors, including the type of surface, temperature, relative humidity and specific load of the virus.
Is it likely to catch COVID-19 from a surface? Catching COVID-19 from a surface is unlikely, but the risk still exists. Laboratory studies have found that the virus can last on different materials for varying amounts of time. Read also : Jason Brassard spent his entire life collecting the weirdest video games. Heist art.. We don’t know if these results always hold in the real world, but we can use them as a guideline.
Can you contract the coronavirus disease by touching a surface?
It may be possible for a person to get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their mouth, nose or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads. The coronavirus is mostly spread from one person to another through respiratory droplets.
How long does the virus that causes COVID-19 last on surfaces?
Recent research evaluated the survival of the COVID-19 virus on various surfaces and reported that the virus can remain viable for up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, up to four hours on copper and up to 24 hours on cardboard. Read also : What is a revenge trip and why is everyone talking about it?.
How long does the coronavirus live on different materials?
Depending on the surface, the virus can live on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. The new coronavirus appears to be able to survive the longest on plastic and stainless steel – potentially as long as three days on these surfaces. This may interest you : Why the digital nomad lifestyle is on the rise. It can also live on cardboard for up to 24 hours.
What does it mean that coronaviruses are zoonotic?
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and humans. Detailed studies showed that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses circulate in animals that have not yet infected humans.
Can animals spread the coronavirus disease? There is no evidence that animals play a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to humans. There have been a few reports of infected mammals spreading the virus to humans during close contact, but this is rare.
Can pets or other animals get COVID-19 from people?
If you are sick with COVID-19 (either suspected or confirmed by a test), you should avoid contact with your pets and other animals, just as you would with people. Contact includes pets, cuddling, kissing, licking, sharing food and sleeping in the same bed.
Are there different types of coronaviruses other than COVID-19?
Coronaviruses didn’t just appear recently. They are a large family of viruses that have been around for a long time. Many of them can cause a variety of illnesses, from mild coughs to serious respiratory illnesses. The new (or “novel”) coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is one of several known to infect humans.
Is the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a zoonotic virus?
The virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is a zoonotic virus, meaning it can be spread between humans and animals.
What should parents do if their child becomes ill with COVID-19 symptoms?
If a child becomes ill with COVID-19 symptoms (cough, fever, fatigue, etc.), parents should follow local public health guidelines and the child should stay at home until symptoms resolve. If symptoms persist or worsen, parents should seek advice from the child’s healthcare provider in accordance with national recommendations. When the child has no symptoms, local public health guidelines for returning to school can be followed.
Can vitamin D help treat COVID-19? There is evidence that vitamin D can improve the immune functions of human cells and reduce the spread of some viruses in the laboratory environment. However, there is very limited information about the safety and effectiveness of using vitamin D to treat or prevent COVID-19 (as of August 7, 2020)(source). If your health care professional finds that you have a vitamin D deficiency, it must be treated regardless of COVID-19. The best way to learn how to treat COVID-19 is to conduct randomized controlled clinical trials.
Are you still contagious with COVID-19 after 5 days?
Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, which has worked on similar PCR-based studies of contagiousness, agrees that ten days is a useful rule of thumb for when people should no longer be contagious. But he warns that a small number of people may still be contagious beyond that time.
What should you do if your child is sick with COVID-19?
If you think your child is sick with COVID-19, trust your instincts, especially if the child has a cough or fever. Contact your pediatrician, family doctor, or urgent care clinic if you don’t have a doctor and follow their instructions carefully regarding isolation and testing.
