Life expectancy in the United States fell by a staggering year in the first half of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials said.
Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics nearly two, according to preliminary estimates Thursday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is a huge decline,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. “You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.”
Other health experts say it shows the profound impact of COVID-19, not only on deaths caused directly by infections, but also on heart disease, cancer and other conditions.
“What is really striking about these figures is that they only reflect the first half of the year. … I would expect these figures to only get worse, ”said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a health researcher and dean at the University of California, San Francisco.
This is the first time the CDC has reported life expectancy from early and partial records; even more death certificates from that period may appear. It is already known that 2020 was the deadliest year in US history, with deaths exceeding 3 million for the first time.
Life expectancy is how long an baby born today can expect to live on average. In the first half of last year, it was 77.8 years for Americans in general, down one year from 78.8 in 2019. It was 75.1 years for men and 80.5 for women. years.
As a group, Hispanics in the United States have the longest longevity and still have it. Black people are now white for six years in life expectancy, reversing a trend that was approaching their 1993 number.
Between 2019 and the first half of 2020, life expectancy decreased by 2.7 years for blacks, to 72. It decreased by 1.9 years for Hispanics, to 79.9 and 0.8 years for whites, to at 78. The preliminary report did not analyze trends for Asians or Native Americans.
“Black and Hispanic communities in the United States have borne the brunt of this pandemic,” Bibbins-Domingo said.
They are more likely to be in the front line, with low-paying jobs and living in crowded environments, where the virus is easier to spread and “there are strong and pre-existing health disparities in other conditions” that increase their risk of die of COVID-19, she said.
It needs to do more to distribute vaccines fairly, improve working conditions and better protect minorities from infections and include them in economic aid measures.
Dr. Otis Brawley, a cancer specialist and professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University, agreed.
“The focus really needs to be on the broad spread of getting all the right American care. And health care needs to be defined as prevention as well as treatment,” he said.
In general, the decline in life expectancy is further evidence of “our mishandling of the pandemic,” Brawley said.
“We have been devastated by coronavirus more than any other country. We are 4% of the world’s population, more than 20% of coronavirus deaths,” he said.
Insufficient use of masks, early dependence on drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, “which proved useless,” and other missteps meant many Americans died unnecessarily, Brawley said.
“First, we need to practice the basics,” such as hand washing, physical distancing, and vaccination as soon as possible, to prevent backlog, he said.