Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Horrific Decrease': US Life Expectancy Tumbles By Nearly Two Years
NPR: The Pandemic Led To The Biggest Drop In U.S. Life Expectancy Since WWII, Study Finds
A new study estimates that life expectancy in the U.S. decreased by nearly two years between 2018 and 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the declines were most pronounced among minority groups, including Black and Hispanic people. In 2018, average life expectancy in the U.S. was about 79 years (78.7). It declined to about 77 years (76.9) by the end of 2020, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. "We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It's a horrific decrease in life expectancy," said Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and an author of the study released on Wednesday. (The study is based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics and includes simulated estimates for 2020.) (Aubrey, 6/23)
NBC News: U.S. Life Expectancy Decreased By An 'Alarming' Amount During Pandemic
Health experts anticipated life expectancy would drop during the pandemic, but how much it did came as a surprise. “I naively thought the pandemic would not make a big difference in the gap because my thinking was that it’s a global pandemic, so every country is going to take a hit,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the new study. “What I didn’t anticipate was how badly the U.S. would handle the pandemic.” (Sullivan, 6/23)
USA Today: US Life Expectancy Falls Further Behind Other Countries
A country's life expectancy is shaped by its health care system, personal health behaviors, social and economic factors, physical and social environment, and public policies. Even if the U.S. fixed all these problems overnight, it would still take decades to catch up to other high-income countries, said Jessica Ho, assistant professor of gerontology, sociology, and spatial sciences at the University of Southern California, who was unaffiliated with the study. “If we do everything perfectly, we can increase (life expectancy) 2.5 years every decade,” she said. (Rodriguez, 6/23)
KHN: Black And Hispanic Americans Suffer Most In Biggest US Decline In Life Expectancy Since WWII
Although James Toussaint has never had covid, the pandemic is taking a profound toll on his health. First, the 57-year-old lost his job delivering parts for a New Orleans auto dealership in spring 2020, when the local economy shut down. Then, he fell behind on his rent. Last month, Toussaint was forced out of his apartment when his landlord — who refused to accept federally funded rental assistance — found a loophole in the federal ban on evictions. (Szabo, 6/24)
