A new report shows six major causes are to blame for a record decline in life expectancy in the U.S. As expected, the COVID-19 pandemic was the major cause of death, but the report also listed overdose; gun-related homicide and suicide; teen suicide; motor vehicle fatalities; and heart disease/stroke/diabetes as causes. The report listed recommendations that could lower the death rate.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported U.S. life expectancy dropped 2.8 years from its peak, to 76.1 years, erasing all life expectancy gains since 1996.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein is Director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He says the nation has not seen a decline of this magnitude in more than a century, since the time of World War I and the Great Influenza.
View the report for more information.
