Covid, cancer, heart disease, drug use and overdose… For the second year in a row, life expectancy for Americans falls to its lowest level since 1996, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Preventive Health Statistics reported by CNN.
Life expectancy in the United States is, on average, two and a half years shorter in 2021, with Americans overall living to be 76.4 years old, according to the most recent data.
“What we are seeing in terms of mortality patterns is due in large part to the covid-19 pandemic,” Robert Anderson, head of mortality statistics at the National Center for Preventive Health Statistics, told US media.
Covid-19 is the cause of one death in eight in 2021, compared to one death in ten in 2020. The pandemic thus remains the third cause of death in the country, after heart disease, the main mortality factor , and cancer. second factor Together, these three causes are responsible for half of the deaths in the United States in 2021.
“Covid-19 has exacerbated many factors”
Drug overdoses are also wreaking havoc in the country and have increased significantly during the pandemic, reaching record levels in 2021. Nearly 107,000 people died from drug overdoses last year. Statistics called “tragic but not surprising” by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Use.
“The pandemic has had an amplifying effect on an already devastating overdose crisis in the United States. Covid-19 has exacerbated many stressors in society that make people more vulnerable to drug use,” he explained, he told CNN.
However, this increase in mortality, partly amplified by the pandemic, is not irrevocable, the researchers believe. “This trend must be watched carefully in the coming years. But it is very possible that things return to normal, we could end up with a life expectancy that returns to what it was before Covid,” projects Robert Anderson. It remains to be seen how long it will be until the effects of the pandemic wear off.
Source: BFM TV
