“We have a house made of cards, and the pandemic just blew the house down like a wind” – said an expert sociologist from Syracuse University on 21st July 2021. Since World War II, it is the largest crash just within a year. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken down US life expectancy from 78.8 to 77.3 years.
Coronavirus is the prime reason behind such a sharp decline of 1.5 years from the US survival ratio. As per the new research done on July 2021, that the pandemic mostly threatened the male population and the communities of the colors. The mystery behind this specification is still not clear to many.
Unfortunately, COVID raised the death bar a lot among the US population. As National Centers for disease control and prevention found life expectancy reduced almost 74 percent.
However, as per the reports of Xinhua News, 11 percent of the decline might be the results of accidental deaths, drug overdose, and unintentional injuries.
Approximately, 3.6 million US people died in 2020. Around 375,000 of the cases were due to the pandemic that has also killed more than 4 million around the world. Besides, cancer and cardiac arrest, Coronavirus was the third leading reason for death.
The latest researches have also shown how the pandemic shattered the Latinx population in the US. As per the sources, Princeton economist Anne Case said that – “the decline rate is horrific but sadly not unexpected. There is valid hope that some bounce back in life expectancy will happen in 2021. But the extent will depend on the communities resistant to vaccines.”
On other hand, Chantel Martin, assistant epidemiology professor of the University of North Carolina told the USA Today- “the devastating number that we witness, especially among non-Hispanic and Hispanic black people, is massive.”
African Americans got hospitalized with the virus at 2.9 times and diet 2 times than the White Americans. On other hand, Native Americans got hospitalized at 3.3 times the rate and died at 2.4 times the rate. However, pneumonia, influenza, and Alzheimer’s induced also led males to death. Whereas, heart disease and stroke were the death reasons for the females.
There is also some evidence that alcohol-related liver damage, drug overdose, or cirrhosis deaths have a link with the pandemic. The researchers of Virginia Commonwealth University found that the COVID cases worsened the weight problems, diabetes, and liver damages. CDC data also showed more than 80 percent of 2020’s COVID deaths were people aged 65 and older.
Way too many people have already died from the deadly virus in 2020. Unfortunately, several variants of the virus are also spreading among the unvaccinated US population. The experts said that many younger adults are still not vaccinated.
Noreen Goldman, a researcher of Princeton University has observed said- “We can’t get back to pre-pandemic life expectancy in 2021.” It seems that getting both doses of vaccines is the best thing we can do right now.
