The COVVI-19 was the third cause of death in the United States in 2021, just like in 2020, behind cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Le Monde with AFP
The life expectancy of the Americans was reduced by almost a year in 2021, after having already lost a year and a half in 2020, in particular because of the Pandemic of Covid-19, announced on Wednesday August 31, American health authorities.
It was established last year at 76.1 years, according to provisional figures from Prevention and fight against disease centers (CDC) , a lower since 1996. This is the biggest decline observed over two years in a row since the years 1921 to 1923.
In comparison, the life expectancy of the Americans was 77 years in 2020, against 78.8 years in 2019. “The decline of life expectancy since 2019 is largely trained by the pandemic,” wrote the CDC.
The highest drop in life expectancy observed in Amerindians
The deaths linked to the COVID-19 represented three quarters of the decline observed in 2020, and half of the decline in 2021. About 15 % of the drop recorded in 2021 could, moreover, be attributed to the increase in deaths linked to “unintentional accidents and injuries”, including, in particular, overdoses.
The health authorities note that the gap of life expectancy between men and women has widened, going from 5.7 years in 2020 to 5.9 in 2021. It is the most gap Great since 1996. In detail, American women had in 2021 a life expectancy of 79.1 years, against 73.2 for men.
Furthermore, the highest drop in life expectancy in 2021 was observed in the Amerindians (- 1.9 years compared to 2020), followed by white people (- 1 year), then the Afro- Americans (- 0.7 years). The life expectancy of the Amerindians in 2021 was only 65.2 years. It was 70.8 years for black people, against 76.4 for white people.
The COVVI-19 was the third cause of death in the United States in 2021, as in 2020, behind cardiovascular disease and cancer, according to a previous CDC report. After a last peak in the winter of 2022, the deaths linked to the COVVI-19 fell sharply in the United States, even if the country still records around 400 per day for a total of more than a million dead from the start of the pandemic.