Do You Care About Life Expectancy Numbers?

It’s such a generic reference that usually does not tell you much about your personal risks. Usually. This number is a reflection of society as a whole, but the harsh realities tell us that American life expectancy is moving in the wrong direction. We watched a big drop in 2020, an obvious reflection of the pre- and early-vaccination availability during the intensifying COVID pandemic. Drug overdoses were mounting too, as lethal doses of fentanyl showed up with vastly greater frequency on our streets, amplifying the already deadly impact of opioid usage. Gun deaths too became more relevant as military grade assault rifles found their way, legally, into civilian hands. Guns became the number one cause of death among our children.

In December, the Centers for Disease Control issued their numbers for 2021, and life expectancy was literally half more than half a year shorter than what we had assumed was a bottom-disaster from 2020. Wrong. 76.4 years. Melissa Healy, writing for the December 23rd Los Angeles Times, reminds us that we are actually doing less than our peers in the developed world, nations with universal healthcare and strong gun control laws: “Aside from a few bumps along the road, U.S. lifespans have followed an upward course since 1900, when newborn Americans could expect to live 47.3 years. The one major exception: Average life expectancy plummeted in 1917 and 1918, when a world war and a flu pandemic conspired to reduce average life expectancy from 54.5 years in 1915 down to 39.1 years in 1918.

“America’s steady life expectancy gains began to stagnate around 2000, when deaths from drugs, suicides, gun violence and chronic illnesses began a steady upward climb. By 2010, the U.S. had lost its edge over most other affluent countries and American lifespans began falling behind.

“By 2020, the average longevity of newborn Americans was 4.7 years lower than their counterparts in other wealthy places — closer to the averages seen in Peru and Thailand than to those of countries such as France, Israel or South Korea.

“With the world’s third-highest COVID-19 mortality rate, the United States was unlikely to close the gap in 2021. Two years of declining life expectancy may not prove to be the start of a long-term trend. But [Dr. Stephen Woolf, a researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University] said the lingering mental and physical health effects of the pandemic, the continuing scourge of addiction, and the outsize toll of gun violence do not augur well for bringing U.S. life expectancy in line with our peers.

“‘The experience of other countries tells us it wasn’t inevitable that it had to be this way,’ Wollf said. Countries that embraced COVID-19 vaccines and other public health measures, and that administered medical care more equitably, ‘have shown it was possible to have an epidemic and have a different outcome,’ he said…

“The new figures indicate that drug fatalities have risen fivefold over the last two decades, the CDC said… Considering deaths from all causes, the age-adjusted mortality rate for Americans last year was 879.7 deaths per 100,000 people, up 5.3% from 2020.

“For every age group, death rates continued to be highest among Black and Latino men, and among men and women who identify as American Indian/Alaska Native. However, 2021 saw a notable improvement in the health of Black and Latino populations relative to white Americans.

“After researchers accounted for age, they found that white women and men were more likely to die in 2021 than they were in 2020. By contrast, Black and Latino men were less likely to die last year than the year before, and death rates for women in both groups held steady.” We are watching some strange changes in these numbers, including more middle-aged deaths among white Americans than experienced in the past. The deaths from COVID among older citizens seems to have subsided somewhat as well. But compared to countries where we should be doing better, we’re not!

A recent study of blue vs red counties in Florida and Ohio showed significantly more COVID deaths among Republicans than Dems. But a longer-term health review, reported in the July 18th Scientific American and reflected in the above chart, this seems to be a long-term, even pre-pandemic problem: “Republican-leaning ‘red’ states were much more resistant to health measures. The consequences of those differences emerged by the end of 2020, when rates of hospitalization and death from COVID rose in conservative counties and dropped in liberal ones. That divergence continued through 2021, when vaccines became widely available. And although the highly transmissible Omicron variant narrowed the gap in infection rates, hospitalization and death rates, which are dramatically reduced by vaccines, remain higher in Republican-leaning parts of the country.

“But COVID is only the latest chapter in the story of politics and health. ‘COVID has really magnified what had already been brewing in American society, which was that, based on where you lived, your risk of death was much different,’ says Haider J. Warraich, a physician and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“In a study published in June in The BMJ, Warraich and his colleagues showed that over the two decades prior to the pandemic, there was a growing gap in mortality rates for residents of Republican and Democratic counties across the U.S. In 2001, the study’s starting point, the risk of death among red and blue counties (as defined by the results of presidential elections) was similar. Overall, the U.S. mortality rate has decreased in the nearly two decades since then (albeit not as much as in most other high-income countries). But the improvement for those living in Republican counties by 2019 was half that of those in Democratic counties—11 percent lower versus 22 percent lower.”

It's no secret that healthcare coverage is generally significantly less in red states, which are usually opposed to any governmental support of general healthcare availability. Anti-vax, anti-masking and anti-lockdown policies have become politicized as MAGA has raised these issues well beyond COVID related infection. The results speak for themselves. In the end, anti-science, anti-medical experts and opposition to universal healthcare have a price. A very steep price. Death.

I’m Peter Dekom, and investigating and desiring to indict Dr. Anthony Fauci is still a priority for MAGA Republicans… and that literally isn’t going to help extend American life expectancy for anyone.