U.S. life expectancy continued falling in 2021, a pandemic update

While I've mentioned the pandemic in passing several times this month and last, I haven't made it a focus of any single post since Vox explains 'How American conservatives turned against the vaccine,' a pandemic update two months ago. It's time to rectify that omission in the context of revisiting the largest drop in life expectancy since World War II. Watch U.S. life expectancy drops in 2021 from WISH-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana.


WISH-TV didn't provide a video description, so I'm quoting The Hill.

A study by researchers at the Urban Institute, the University of Colorado and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) estimated that the U.S. life expectancy dropped last year to 76.6 years, down more than two years from the rate in 2019. At the same time, life expectancy rates in other wealthy countries increased between 2020 and 2021, after registering a smaller decrease the year before.

“While other high-income countries saw their life expectancy increase in 2021, recovering about half their losses, U.S. life expectancy continued to fall,” VCU sociologist Steven Woolf, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement. “This speaks volumes about the life consequences of how the U.S. handled the pandemic, and in a country where the U.S. Constitution and the 10th Amendment grant public health authority to the states, I believe the U.S. catastrophe speaks volumes about the policies and behaviors of U.S. governors — at least some of them.”

Life expectancy has dropped the most in recent years among Hispanic and Black populations, which researchers attributed to “the legacy of systemic racism and inadequacies in the U.S. handling of the pandemic.”

Ryan Masters, a sociologist at the University of Colorado and the study’s lead author, said high rates of obesity and heart disease made the U.S. population more vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic than populations in other wealthy countries.

As I wrote last year, "the pandemic is responsible for most of the drop, [but] other causes, like the opioid epidemic and systemic racism making the pandemic worse for minorities, played roles in lowering life expectancy." All of this is still true, which is why I also wrote "returning to the pre-pandemic normal isn't good enough."

Follow over the jump for total U.S. deaths last year and the effect on the populations of states.

Another dose of health news from campuses on the campaign trail

The campuses on on the campaign trail continue to be rich sources for health stories.  First Health news from campuses on the campaign trail, then More health news from campuses on the campaign trail, and now all the health-related stories from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (2013 Nobel Prizes) show what a cornucopia of health research and outreach these campuses are.

I begin with a story related to the Affordable Care Act from Rutgers University, which I'm posting to celebrate the end of the shutdown over the ACA and the raising of the debt ceiling.

Improving Health Care, Controlling Costs – Rutgers Launches New Initiative
One key factor sets Robert Wood Johnson Partners apart from other attempts at reform – the Accountable Care Organization has the power of a major research university behind it
By Andrea Alexander
Monday, October 7, 2013

During nearly three decades as a primary care physician, Alfred Tallia has identified a daunting list of flaws with the nation’s health care.

Specialists rarely coordinate care for patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure – which can lead to repetitive, expensive tests.

In most doctors’ offices, no one is responsible for developing plans with patients to lose weight, exercise and change their diet – or for following up with those patients to help them meet their goals.

But Tallia, chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School – now part of Rutgers – is getting ready to launch a solution he believes will deliver more effective care at a lower cost.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the stories.

Health news from campuses on the campaign trail

I have been under the weather for the past week and went to see my primary care physician today (yesterday by the time this entry posts).  To reflect this, I'm posting health care and health research news from campuses on the campaign trail.  All stories were originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (LADEE launched) and Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (IgNobel Prizes).

I begin with Rutgers Today on YouTube: Revolutionizing Urban Healthcare

Cindy Sickora runs a mobile healthcare program in Newark. Suzanne Willard heads a wellness center. Together, two leaders of Rutgers nursing schools are striving to make healthcare accessible to city residents, who are among the most underserved in the nation.

Follow over the jump for more stories.