COVID Metrics – Life Expectancy Plunges in the US

Even as Japan’s rising life expectancy nears 85 years, the United States began a pre-pandemic decline beginning in 2015. “The reason for the most recent drop in [U.S.] life expectancy is not a result of any specific event, but has been attributed to negative societal trends, such as unbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles, high medical costs, and increasing rates of suicide and drug use.” Statista.com, February 3, 2021. The greatest pre-pandemic declines were highest in states with the highest obesity rates, the lowest healthcare coverage, high unemployment and high opioid addiction rates. And that was before the United States became the country with the greatest numbers of COVID infections and deaths on earth. 

Latinos, where family units tend to care for their own elderly, have traditionally had life expectancy numbers than have averaged higher than average and higher than while cohorts. The Centers for Disease Control recently reported statistics for some, but all, of the racial and ethnic groups… and how COVID-19 has impacted those communities that were hardest hit by the pandemic. Latinos and African Americans. Often essential workers – a with either no access to a vaccine, fear of the vaccine (see my February 10th Skepticism Born of an Ugly Betrayal blog for the genesis of some of that fear) or working conditions with necessary closeness to other workers (pictured above) – are not the individuals we prioritize for inoculation. And too frequently, these are people of color who are on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

Some of the recent mortality rates are a function of those with non-COVID-related disease – heart disease, cancer, strokes, etc. (where there is a reluctance to seek hospital treatment) – but there is no escaping that the bulk of the negative numbers are directly related to COVID itself. “This is the first time the CDC has reported on life expectancy from early, partial records; more death certificates from that period may yet come in. It’s already known that 2020 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths topping 3 million for the first time.

“Life expectancy represents how long a baby born today can expect to live, on average. In the first half of last year, that was 77.8 years for Americans overall, down one year from 78.8 in 2019. It was 75.1 years for males and 80.5 years for females.

“As a group, Latinos in the U.S. have had the most longevity and still do. Black people now lag white people by six years in life expectancy, reversing a trend that had been narrowing the gap since 1993.

“Between 2019 and the first half of 2020, life expectancy decreased 2.7 years for Black people, to 72. It dropped 1.9 years for Latinos, to 79.9, and 0.8 years for white people, to 78… The preliminary report did not analyze trends for Asian Americans or Native Americans.” Associated Press, February 19th. Vaccination is only part of the solution, a reality that might get more complicated as vaccine-resistant strains of the virus develop. After all, most of the earth still does not even have any vaccines (or has vaccines in very small amounts) or any real mechanism to distribute them. With global trade and travel, there seems to be no clear proven way for the United States to stop such variants from reaching our shores unless there is global herd immunity. 

Disease skeptics, often bolstered by political leaders like Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro or our own ex-President Donald Trump who have repeatedly denied the seriousness of the novel coronavirus, have eschewed social distancing, wearing masks and, in extreme times, lockdowns. This makes COVID containment much more difficult and has increased resistance to getting vaccinated even where the vaccines are available. A medical problem has somehow been morphed into a political stance.

Dr. Otis Brawley, a cancer specialist and public health professor at Johns Hopkins University, tells us that “‘The focus really needs to be broad spread of getting every American adequate care. And healthcare needs to be defined as prevention as well as treatment,’ he said… Overall, the drop in life expectancy is more evidence of ‘our mishandling of the pandemic,’ Brawley said.

“‘We have been devastated by the coronavirus, more so than any other country. We are 4% of the world’s population, more than 20% of the world’s coronavirus deaths,’ he said… Not enough use of masks, early reliance on drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, ‘which turned out to be worthless,’ and other missteps meant many Americans died needlessly, Brawley said… ‘Going forward, we need to practice the very basics’ such as hand-washing, physical distancing and vaccinating as soon as possible to get prevention back on track, he said.” Associated Press.

As the only developed nation on earth without universal healthcare – as conservatives tell us that we cannot afford what all those other countries provide – there is a callousness to the United States and its concern for its own citizens. Can we really afford to protect thousands of billionaires, some with serious nine-figure net worths, and still let our people die from medical insufficiencies designed simply to keep taxes low for the richest in the land?

I’m Peter Dekom, and at what point do we, as Americans, actually begin to care for our fellow residents enough to provide them with the most basic medical care?