Life expectancy in the United States fell by one year in the first half of 2020 alone, as a coronavirus pandemic triggered a wave of deaths
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released on Thursday, February 18, blacks and Hispanics have been hit hardest. In these minorities, life expectancy has fallen by 3 and 2 years respectively.
“This is a huge drop”, – said Robert Anderson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He also noted that such a drop in life expectancy has not been seen in the US since the 1940s.
For her part, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, dean of the University of California, San Francisco, pointed to the fact that the figures released only reflect the first half of 2020.
“I expect these figures will only get worse”, – she summarised.
Life expectancy refers to the estimated lifespan of a person born at a given time. In the first half of last year, the figure for Americans as a whole was 77.8 years, one year less than a year earlier. Among blacks, the figure fell 2.7 years to 72, for Hispanics 1.9 years to 79.9, and for whites 0.8 years to 78.1