The pandemic has reduced life expectancy in the United States | Due to coronavirus, WWII figures have been dropped

The coronavirus pandemic has altered life expectancy in the United States. In 2020, it fell by a year and a half, the biggest annual drop since World War II. The decline was most pronounced among Hispanics and African Americans, with a three-year decline.

This was reported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which attributed the decrease in life expectancy to covid-19. In 2020, there were 3.3 million deaths in the United States, a record number. 11% were due to the coronavirus.

In the case of whites, the reduction in life expectancy fell from 14 months to 77 years and 7 months. This is the worst data for this segment of the population since 2002.

For African Americans, you have to go back to the years of the Great Depression, nine decades ago, to find such a drop in life expectancy: 71 years and 10 months, a figure that has only been recorded. in 2000.

The records in the case of Hispanics are not that old, however, since the statistics have been kept for fifteen years. However, the 2020 figures are also a record for this community: the life expectancy of its members has fallen by three years.

It is not just the virus that is causing this decline. Experts add drug overdoses, especially among whites, and the increased murder rate among blacks, according to Elizabeth Arias, one of the report’s editors.

To these causes, it must be added that Hispanics and African Americans have not had access to quality health care, suffer from overcrowding and have lower paying jobs.

Life expectancy (that is, the estimate of the average number of years a person born in a given year can live) has been increasing in the United States for decades, but stagnated in 2015. In 2019 , it was set at 78 years and 10 years. months and in 2020 it dropped to 77 years and 4 months.

The influence of the pandemic varies between groups. He was responsible for 90 percent of the decline in life expectancy among Hispanics. This number is 68 for whites and increases to 59 for African Americans.

In addition, the historical gap between men and women has widened. In the first, it was reduced by almost two years, while the women lost a year. They have a life expectancy of 80 years and 2 months, while that of men is 74 years and 6 months.

In turn, those over 65 account for more than 80% of coronavirus deaths in the United States. As a result, the effects of the pandemic on life expectancy in the first few months of life have diminished, marked by the deaths of young adults and children, more than the deaths of the elderly.

For these reasons, the reduction in life expectancy in 2020 represents half of the three-year decline recorded between 1942 and 1943, during the Second World War.

The previous significant reduction had been recorded between 1917 and 1918, during the American intervention in the First World War and the Spanish influenza pandemic.

In these cases, life expectancy was able to recover and it is estimated that the phenomenon will repeat itself after the pandemic.

What cannot yet be established is how many years it might take to recover the values ​​that have been lost. In fact, it is already a given that there is no way to recover the pre-pandemic values ​​in 2021.