- Researchers have found that due to the pandemic deaths last year, life expectancy dropped by over a year to 77.48 years of age in the U.S.
- This is the largest single-year decline in life expectancy in at least 40 years.
- The declines in life expectancy are likely even more significant among Black and Latino communities.
Despite the hopeful news of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the harsh reality is that some of the darkest months still lie ahead.
In fact, new research indicates that COVID-19 has reduced U.S. life expectancy at birth for Americans by 1.13 years.
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Southern California and Princeton have found that due to the pandemic deaths last year, life expectancy has been reduced to 77.48 years of age, the largest single-year decline in life expectancy in at least 40 years.
The study also found that the declines in life expectancy are likely even more significant among communities of color. For Black people, the study found that life expectancy would shorten by 2.1 years and for Latinos by 3.05 years. The decline in white life expectancy is projected at 0.68 years.
“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused … 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in less than a year,” said Dr. Anthony S. Lubinsky, director of the ICU at NYU Langone Tisch Hospital. “The group that did the study used statistical methods to estimate the effect of the deaths in these different groups on their life expectancy in 2020 and compared it to the past several years.”
Source: healthline