Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
US Life Expectancy Improved In 2019 — But That Was Before COVID Hit
The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Deaths To Reverse U.S. Life-Expectancy Gains
U.S. life expectancy inched up last year but in 2020 could decline by the largest amount since World War II, as Covid-19 becomes the nation’s third-leading cause of death. Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday showed that life expectancy rose to 78.8 years in 2019, an increase of one-tenth of a year, marking the second consecutive year of progress on the key measure of national well-being. (Adamy, 12/22)
US News and World Report: Life Expectancy Increased In 2019, But COVID Deaths Loom Large
Life expectancy in the U.S. increased for a second consecutive year in 2019 – notable progress that could be derailed by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. A report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics shows that life expectancy at birth for the U.S. population in 2019 was 78.8 years, an increase from 78.7 years in 2018. For males, life expectancy increased from 76.2 years in 2018 to 76.3 years in 2019, while it increased from 81.2 years in 2018 to 81.4 years in 2019 for females. (Cirruzzo, 12/22)
PBS NewsHour: Before COVID-19, U.S. Life Expectancy Was Making A Slight Rebound
The new report released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the National Center for Health Statistics, paints a picture of how Americans were living and dying before COVID-19 emerged in the U.S. and killed at least 320,000 in this country so far. To get that picture, researchers for the federal government gathered details from millions of death certificates. 2019’s small rebound doesn’t mean that drug overdoses became a thing of the past last year. Despite life expectancy beginning to stabilize after years of decline, tens of thousands of American deaths were linked to drug use in 2019, and early data from the CDC suggests those deaths have increased amid the challenges posed by COVID-19. (Santhanam, 12/22)
