We are entering year three of the Covid-19 pandemic, and research revealed that life expectancy in the United States declined again in 2021—which followed a well-documented drop in 2020 and contrasted a recovery trend in other high-income countries.
U.S. life expectancy fell from 78.86 years in 2019 to 76.99 years in 2020 and 76.60 years in 2021, a net loss of 2.26 years.
Dr. Steven Woolf, co-author of the new study and director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement that "we already knew that the U.S. experienced historic losses in life expectancy in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. What wasn't clear is what happened in 2021. Early in 2021, knowing an excellent vaccine was being distributed, I was hopeful that the U.S. could recover some of its historic losses," said Woolf. "But I began to worry more when I saw what happened as the year unfolded. Even so, as a scientist, until I saw the data it remained an open question how U.S. life expectancy for that year would be affected," he added. "It was shocking to see that U.S. life expectancy, rather than having rebounded, had dropped even further."
In addition to examining the United States, the researchers looked at life expectancy over the past two years in 19 "peer countries," and found a smaller drop between 2019 and 2020—an average of 0.57 years—followed by an average 0.28-year increase from 2020 to 2021.
"While other high-income countries saw their life expectancy increase in 2021, recovering about half of their losses, U.S. life expectancy continued to fall," Woolf said. "This speaks volumes about the life consequences of how the U.S. handled the pandemic."
Co-author Laudan Aron, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, told The Washington Post, "The life expectancy gap between the United States and its peer income countries is now over five years, which is an incredible gap."
Drop in Life Expectancy 'Speaks Volumes' About How US Handled Covid: Expert (commondreams.org)
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