What Can Stop the Shortening of American Lives?
Although US life expectancy has recovered somewhat since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains lower than it was before 2019, owing to America's world-leading rates of overdoses, gun deaths, and obesity. The politically driven loss of public trust in public health and expertise continues to take a devastating toll.
NEW YORK – Even as COVID-19 recedes into the background of everyday life, the broader decline in US life expectancy is still with us, because too many elected officials refuse to take its causes seriously.