According to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) and Princeton University, COVID-19-induced deaths have reduced overall life expectancy in the United States by 1.13 years. Epidemiologically, this is a major recession. Life expectancy is one of the most accurate bars in society’s health.
Adding to the pandemic of the pandemic, a new variant of the coronavirus has been discovered across more than 12 states, threatening to exacerbate the crisis.
On New Year’s Day, the U.S. had recorded 20.7 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 357,000 deaths, making it the third leading cause of death behind cancer and heart disease. However, this retention figure represents only confirmed cases.
In total, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) detected more than 475,000 premature deaths in early December. It is estimated that nearly two-thirds of overweight deaths are directly attributed to COVID-19. Compared to 2019, deaths in the U.S. have climbed more than 10 percent.
The term “life expectancy” is often used in epidemiology to assess the health of a nation but allows comparisons to be made between countries and groups of people. In the simplest sentence, it is an estimate of the average age of people in a particular population when they die.
The most common metric used by international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank, also known as the “life expectancy,” is the average life expectancy estimated for a given population from birth to death. It does not take into account how mortality rates change over time. Instead, it focuses on one-time mortality patterns.
Despite the U.S. spending more on per capita health care than any other country, these efforts have not translated into people pursuing longer lives in the U.S. In 2019, life expectancy stood at 78.9 years compared to 80.7 years for the rest of the OECD countries. This is directly due to great social inequality.
In particular, the U.S. is doing badly in areas such as avoidable mortality. He also suffers from a higher breast disease burden and greater obesity among the population. In addition, the U.S. is deteriorating with access to health coverage and financial stability. This should come as no surprise given the sheer scale and major cuts in U.S. public health infrastructure that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has made such a success.
Since 1860, when life expectancy has stood at 39.4 years, largely due to high infant and maternal mortality, medical advances and improvements in living standards have been steadily climbing over the intervening decades. that and 78.9 years by 2020. Life expectancy has fallen sharply in only three historical periods; the Civil War, 1860–1865; the Spanish flu in 1918; and, since 2015, the rising opioid epilepsy, alcohol abuse and suicide that has arisen as a result of economic and social distress. Between 2010 and 2017, the mortality rate had risen by 6 per cent among working – age adults, but particularly those aged between 25 and 34.
Deaths from the COVID pandemic have now reduced life expectancy to 77.48 years. Historically, this is the lowest level since 2003. Compared to the annual declines seen due to drug overdose, the reduction in life expectancy due to COVID is 10 times greater.
According to the USC and Princeton study, “The U.S. decline in life expectancy by 2020 is expected to be higher than that of most high-income countries, showing that the United States – at whether life expectancy was already lower than other high-income countries. before the epidemic – life expectancy falls even further behind its peers. ”
The study is ongoing to provide estimates based on race. While life expectancy for white people decreased by just 0.68 years to 77.84 years, the decline was sharp for black people, with a loss of 2.10 years to 72.78 years and for Latinos by 3.05 years to 78.77 years. Blacks and Latinos have an average household income of $ 46,073 and $ 56,113, respectively, compared to whites with $ 76,057 and Asians with $ 98,174.
Throughout the pandemic, race has been used to cover the impact of the pandemic on the working class as a whole. As the economic indices show, the poorest in society are the worst. The WSWS has blamed almost every day that workers who hold low-wage jobs with little autonomy are the biggest victims of the scourge of the pandemic. Healthcare, food, meat sales and packaging are just a short list of the industries where there is a high risk from workers. An economic imperative requires many workers to make the difficult choice to continue working while minimizing the impact of the disease.
In addition, harmful poverty also means a lack of access to adequate health care, nutrition, exercise and healthy living conditions. Many breast health diseases that put people at risk for adverse outcomes with COVID-19, such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and heart disease, are largely represented in the poorest sectors. of the population at an even younger age.
Since the first year, there have been 3.578 million new COVID-19 infections nationwide, and 48,595 more people have died in the last 16 days. Despite these staggering numbers, President Joe Biden and the incoming administration are pushing to reopen schools, despite the irregular distribution of the vaccine. Schools must remain open at all costs, they argue, until parents of children are brought back into the workplace.
Contributing to the pandemic of the pandemic, despite the B.1.1.7 version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus detected across more than 12 states, the CDC modeling study suggests that it will be mainstreamed by March.
They warn, “Increased mobility of this variable requires even more stringent vaccination and mitigation measures (i.e., speed, shelter and hand hygiene) to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2. These measures will be more effective if they are implemented sooner thereafter to delay the initial release of B.1.1.7. Efforts are needed to prepare the health care system for further compliance. Increased mobility also means reaching higher than expected vaccine coverage to achieve the same level of disease control to protect the public compared to less susceptible changes. ”
With increased mobility, the number of new cases will begin to rise dramatically in a few short weeks without any further intervention. Healthcare workers who are already accused of facing sick patients, make matters worse. The working class must unite based on a common struggle to fight the pandemic by setting up independent workplace and neighborhood committees to close all non-professional workplaces and full financial support for all those affected by the pandemic.