U.S. life expectancy falls for 2nd year in a row

[Hydrogen]

Despite the availability of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines, so many people died in the second year of the pandemic in the U.S. that the nation's life expectancy dropped for a second year in a row last year, according to a new analysis.

The analysis of provisional government statistics found U.S. life expectancy fell by just under a half a year in 2021, adding to a dramatic plummet in life expectancy that occurred in 2020. Public health experts had hoped the vaccines would prevent another drop the following year.

"The finding that instead we had a horrible loss of life in 2021 that actually drove the life expectancy even lower than it was in 2020 is very disturbing," says Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of population health and health equity at Virginia Commonwealth University, who help conduct the analysis. "It speaks to an extensive loss of life during 2021."

Many of the deaths occurred in people in the prime of their lives, Woolf says, and drove the overall U.S. life expectancy to fall to 76.6 years — the lowest in at least 25 years.

"Shame on the U.S.," says Noreen Goldman, a demographer at Princeton University who wasn't involved in the research. "It just continues to boggle my mind how poorly we've come through this pandemic. And I find that disgraceful."

The 2021 drop came after U.S life expectancy plummeted in 2020, tumbling by almost two years — the biggest one-year fall in U.S. life expectancy since at least World War II.

"The motivation for this study was to determine whether the horrible drop in life expectancy that we documented in 2020 resolved or rebounded in 2021 or whether there was a continued decline. Unfortunately, we did not find good news," Woolf told NPR in an interview.

Surprisingly, while the 2020 drop in life expectancy hit Blacks and Hispanics hardest, that wasn't the case in 2021, the analysis found. Life expectancy among Hispanics didn't significantly change between 2020 and 2021, and life expectancy of Blacks actually inched up slightly — by a little less than half a year.

In contrast, the life expectancy of whites fell by about a third of a year, mostly among white men.

"So what this tells us is that this continued decline in life expectancy that we see in the second year has been carried mainly by deaths in the white population," Woolf says.

It's unclear why this happened, but Woolf and others think it may be due in part to whites being more likely to live in states with fewer restrictions, so they let down their guard more, while often refusing to get vaccinated.

"The deaths that occurred in 2021 were a product not only of a lack of vaccination, which was a huge factor, but also being in places that didn't observe policies like masking and social distancing that prevented transmission of the virus," Woolf says.

Because the 2020 drop in life expectancy hit Blacks and Latinos so much harder, they still lost more ground overall in the two years since the pandemic began. Hispanics lost almost four years and Blacks almost three, compared to less than two for whites.

The 2021 drop also widened the gap in life expectancy between the U.S. and other wealthy countries, the analysis found. That was due primarily to lower vaccination rates in the U.S., researchers say.

Life expectancy only dropped by about a half a year in 2020 in countries like England, France and Germany, and then actually increased by about a third of a year in 2021, according to the analysis. So the gap between the U.S. and those countries grew from more than three years in 2019 to more than five years in 2021.

The researchers say a big part of that is fewer pandemic restrictions and more vaccine hesitancy in the U.S., which resulted in lower vaccination rates and a much higher death toll. The prevalence of other health problems like diabetes and obesity also played a role, they say.

"We spend a fortune on medical care and we're a high-income country. We should be able to do far better," Goldman says.


https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/04/07/1091398423/u-s-life-expectancy-falls-for-2nd-year-in-a-row

....


If it is fair to say life expectancy decreases as a result of negative economic conditions: crisis, high inflation, wealth and wage inequality, recession.

Conditions of economic prosperity carry the opposite effect of extending life expectancy.

In which case, bitcoin, coins and tokens which contribute towards prosperity could carry a net effect of causing us to live longer.

Bitcoin. It could literally save your life. And add more years to our lifespan than we otherwise would enjoy.

[Moneyprism]

or vice versa, bitcoin can make your life short because its price is volatile,,, especially if you look at the current unstable market conditions and many crypto investors are losing money 

[davis196]

The Americans eat lots of junk food and don't they don't have a healthy lifestyle.
USA has the most obese nation in the world.
The US healthcare system is shit.Many poor people don't have any access to healthcare in the USA.
Many people in the USA refused to get vaccinated and to wear masks during the pandemic.
What else would you expect from all these factors?
Bitcoin/crypto has nothing to do with the US healthcare system and the people's lifestyle.
There's no way Bitcoin could help for increasing the life expectancy in the USA or anywhere else in the world.

[stompix]

If it is fair to say life expectancy decreases as a result of negative economic conditions: crisis, high inflation, wealth and wage inequality, recession.

The most important thing and nobody want to talk about that is the fact that the life expectancy is decreasing sharply in some minorities, especially because of immigration from other countries. While Hispanic have on average the same or even better life expectancy than white people when it comes to others is a total disaster. And statics get screwed a lot when you have thousands of deaths from people you barely knew are even living in the country while all the studies were getting their data are from legal immigration.

Bitcoin. It could literally save your life. And add more years to our lifespan than we otherwise would enjoy.

So dogecoin or Elon could make you immortal, right?
A lot of those that don't give a damn about their health have way more money than the average guy in southern or eastern Asia, the only difference is that they don't care, wealth will make them just snack more on every stupid food that has an ad during SuperBowl.

[bustabitsboy]

I don't think that bitcoin can have an impact on life expectancy. If we rule out criminal motives. I want to live a long happy life with my family. Maybe in this life there will be no place for bitcoins, but I am sure that you can live happily without it. But I won’t argue that my life will be easier and more interesting with bitcoins, unless of course I don’t have big worries about its rate.

[avikz]

If it is fair to say life expectancy decreases as a result of negative economic conditions: crisis, high inflation, wealth and wage inequality, recession.

Not just negative economic conditions, rather it is socioeconomic conditions that affects the life expectancy of a country. Affordable and high class Medical services also play a major role on that.

Conditions of economic prosperity carry the opposite effect of extending life expectancy.

In which case, bitcoin, coins and tokens which contribute towards prosperity could carry a net effect of causing us to live longer.

Bitcoin and crypto market is volatile. Unless someone is mining at a scale, usually feel more pressure than the traditional investors. Majority of the crypto market participants are small investors and they feel extreme pressure from the price volatility. So I don't see how bitcoin or other cryptos can increase life expectancy. Just doesn't make sense!

[Hydrogen]

So dogecoin or Elon could make you immortal, right?

Elon is building a new robot called optimus, to someday download human consciousness into, so that people might become immortal.

Elon Musk thinks you might like to upload your brain and personality to a humanoid robot


April 9, 2022

Elon Musk isn’t looking to build just any old AI humanoid robot; he’s making one that you can upload your brain and personality too. The robot is named Optimus, and the SpaceX CEO says that we will soon be able to upload our brains abilities into Optimus, or something like Optimus.

https://techaeris.com/2022/04/09/elon-musk-thinks-you-might-like-to-upload-your-brain-and-personality-to-a-humanoid-robot/

Optimus is also currently targeted for replacing human workers in basic daily tasks.

Its built on the same "self driving" AI that tesla cars use, maybe it is doomed to fail the way their autopilot does.

[arallmuus]

Elon is building a new robot called optimus to someday download human consciousness into, so that people might become immortal.

-snip

Optimus is also currently targeted for replacing human workers in basic daily tasks.

Wait what, so its basically human's consciousness in a robot body to do all that labour stuff? sounds pretty weird there

If it is fair to say life expectancy decreases as a result of negative economic conditions: crisis, high inflation, wealth and wage inequality, recession.

Conditions of economic prosperity carry the opposite effect of extending life expectancy.

In which case, bitcoin, coins and tokens which contribute towards prosperity could carry a net effect of causing us to live longer.

Bitcoin. It could literally save your life. And add more years to our lifespan than we otherwise would enjoy.

Life expectancy decreases because the society decided to start eating all those junks as their diets. If we are to view this from economy's POV then pretty sure that this has nothing to do with crypto as most people wont even stop doing all those bad habits that will decrease their life expectancy even when they have life changing amount of money

[paxmao]

Life expectancy is important, but it is also important what percent of your life will you spend doing what you really want instead of what you need to do, usually to make your living and pay bills. I guess we should be speaking about "free time expectancy" as a better measure of the advance of a civilization, country or way of living. For example, many people in US have long working hours, but how good is earning big without time to enjoy?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

It's unclear why this happened, but Woolf and others think it may be due in part to whites being more likely to live in states with fewer restrictions, so they let down their guard more, while often refusing to get vaccinated.

BULL. SHIT.

I skimmed this article and didn't see any words that directly connected the higher death rate with deaths from COVID; the reader is led to believe that he/she now has a shorter life expectancy because there weren't enough restrictions, mandates, and mandatory vaccinations.

Meanwhile, I heard the suicide rate skyrocketed during the pandemic.  Unfortunately I lost a very dear friend who chose that route, and his family said the stress over COVID-related stuff contributed to it.  But he didn't get infected.  These mental health symptoms are because of the government's idiotic, unscientific policies that make people wear masks and keep away from each other.  Imagine the children who were at the age where facial recognition is an important facet of their development, seeing all of these people without faces--it's fucking disgusting to me.

The people who died and might not have because they didn't want the vaccine, well, they made the choice.  I'd much rather have the freedom to take a chance like that than have moron politicians force me to do what they say without having solid scientific evidence to back things up.

I'm not saying there's no good science being done.  I'm not an anti-vaxxer either, despite what I just said.  I'm pro-choice and anti-mandate--and I also know that people in power often don't follow what the science says.

[justdimin]

Do we know if this has something to do with covid? I mean maybe it is all because of covid and all the death? We should remember that we lived through one of the toughest periods in human life for the past 2 years, there have been worse, but we should consider this as one of the deadliest periods in the recent decades for sure, last time this many people died was second world war probably. If that is not even calculated in it, then we could say that economical crisis could be one of the leading reasons.

If you have worked for 50 years and still have to work, that is really not something that would help you with your life for sure, it will quicken the death since it tires the body out quicker.

[Gyfts]

The Americans eat lots of junk food and don't they don't have a healthy lifestyle.
USA has the most obese nation in the world.
The US healthcare system is shit.Many poor people don't have any access to healthcare in the USA.
Many people in the USA refused to get vaccinated and to wear masks during the pandemic.
What else would you expect from all these factors?
Bitcoin/crypto has nothing to do with the US healthcare system and the people's lifestyle.
There's no way Bitcoin could help for increasing the life expectancy in the USA or anywhere else in the world.

Even after factoring in COVID deaths, large portion of the life expectancy dip is because of drug usage and overdoses. Plenty of other developed nations have issues with obesity, although Americans might be in a league of their own. One could argue that Bitcoin would give financial freedom to those that are lower class, and the correlation between obesity and income is well established. Same with most drug users.

[barbara44]

The Americans eat lots of junk food and don't they don't have a healthy lifestyle.
USA has the most obese nation in the world.
The US healthcare system is shit.Many poor people don't have any access to healthcare in the USA.
Many people in the USA refused to get vaccinated and to wear masks during the pandemic.
What else would you expect from all these factors?
Bitcoin/crypto has nothing to do with the US healthcare system and the people's lifestyle.
There's no way Bitcoin could help for increasing the life expectancy in the USA or anywhere else in the world.

Even after factoring in COVID deaths, large portion of the life expectancy dip is because of drug usage and overdoses. Plenty of other developed nations have issues with obesity, although Americans might be in a league of their own. One could argue that Bitcoin would give financial freedom to those that are lower class, and the correlation between obesity and income is well established. Same with most drug users.

I am pretty sure that rich people use drugs as well, they just know how to balance it out most of the time, at least not as commonly as the poor person whereas a poor person could just take too much meth to ease the pain of being inevitably poor for life and then die.

This is why I believe that drug is a problem for all, rich just have a better solution to it, but it is everyone’s problem. What we need to reconsider however is the fact that obesity is something that could be solved, but not worked on at all. Like we see cigarette boxes with crosses on it saying it is dangerous, but we don't see McDonalds with the same even though McDonalds kills a lot more people, not even remotely close levels.

[Anonylz]

The Americans eat lots of junk food and don't they don't have a healthy lifestyle.
USA has the most obese nation in the world.
The US healthcare system is shit.Many poor people don't have any access to healthcare in the USA.
Many people in the USA refused to get vaccinated and to wear masks during the pandemic.
What else would you expect from all these factors?
Bitcoin/crypto has nothing to do with the US healthcare system and the people's lifestyle.
There's no way Bitcoin could help for increasing the life expectancy in the USA or anywhere else in the world.

Couldn't agree more, I heard that covid affects people with low immune system quickly and if you have a weak immune system your body can not fight the virus as it should (am not sure how authentic the info is but it was greatly emphasise upon to boost our immune system)
Which brings us to the healthy lifestyle living, those who don't lead a healthy lifestyle where vulnerable to covid-19.
I don't think btc will or have anything to do with life expectancy and the way people live. You can live a long and healthy life without owning any btc. It depends on individual and how they maintain a healthy lifestyle.

[Coyster]

In which case, bitcoin, coins and tokens which contribute towards prosperity could carry a net effect of causing us to live longer.

Bitcoin. It could literally save your life. And add more years to our lifespan than we otherwise would enjoy.

Lol, life expectancy can't be based on a single factor, at least that is how i see it, quite a lot of things contribute to its increase and decrease, for example one could own as many Bitcoins as possible, but be affected by depression and take his or her life; as a matter of fact having as much money as possible isn't even a factor to increase life expectancy, wealthy people are even known to be more careless about taking care of their health since they are privileged to afford quite a lot, many of which are unhealthy for them in the long run.

Bitcoin/fiat or whatever asset, whether physical or digital can't save ones life or make people live longer, absolutely not. People can only try to live a healthy life and be genrally careful, but honestly there is nothing one can point to as a guarantee to increase life expectancy.

[lixer]

I am pretty sure that rich people use drugs as well, they just know how to balance it out most of the time, at least not as commonly as the poor person whereas a poor person could just take too much meth to ease the pain of being inevitably poor for life and then die.

This is why I believe that drug is a problem for all, rich just have a better solution to it, but it is everyone’s problem. What we need to reconsider however is the fact that obesity is something that could be solved, but not worked on at all. Like we see cigarette boxes with crosses on it saying it is dangerous, but we don't see McDonalds with the same even though McDonalds kills a lot more people, not even remotely close levels.

I don’t support the idea of taking drugs because it can be harmful to our health, no matter how you try to put it. Whether you’re rich or not, drug is a bad thing. I do understand the fact that people do take it as a way to ease themselves of their sorrows and escape the worries of life and depression, but it’s of no use since this is only going to be for the moment and after you’re back to being sober, you would still have those problems waiting to be solved.

Sometimes people end up overdosing themselves with drugs thereby leading to death. I have been low several times, but drugging myself out isn’t an option, I just sit tight and tackle my problems. I look for things to do and ways to get out of those problems.

[stepwilli]

Lol Bitcoin can even give you high blood pressure which can lead to your death with the way this thing fluctuates you think it’s everybody that can deal with the shock of losing money in the cryptocurrency market especially when they don’t have much to spare and were expecting to make profit but ended with loss? Meehn, it’s not easy.

Bitcoin doesn’t give you long life, it’s the kind of life you live that will determine whether you’re going to live long or not. Although Bitcoin can contribute to that in a way that if you make huge profit and become rich through it and start living a high standard of life. But don’t forget that many people are losing money in the market everyday.

[bustabitsboy]

I agree that people with a high monetary income have a better standard of living and can live longer if they lead a healthy lifestyle. But there are people who do not have big profits but live a long happy life. Perhaps big money can even actually shorten the life of their owner. Statistics are made by people and they can be wrong, in fact, covid claimed many lives in different countries and it's very sad

[Hydrogen]

Lol Bitcoin can even give you high blood pressure

AFAIK the most common causes of high blood pressure are diets high in sodium (salt) or sugar.

Salt and sugar are absorbed into the bloodstream causing the blood to become a thicker and more viscous liquid. This results in greater blood pressure being necessary to move blood through veins and arteries.

Reducing salt and sugar from diets is the best method for reducing blood pressure. Greater exercise also helps, although for best results it should be a form of exercise which elevates the heart rate. Rather than a passive form of exercise like walking.

Some foods also have natural blood thinning properties which can reduce blood pressure and inflammation.

I feel other peoples stress over bitcoins current price though. My solution to it, is simply to never look at the price.   

[Darker45]

I am not troubled that much if life expectancy is falling in the middle of a pandemic. That is expected because the COVID-19 virus could kill, especially those who are old and those who are already suffering from illnesses. It would be troubling if life expectancy has been falling for the past years even without strong external factors like a pandemic or a war or long periods of severe drought.

Bitcoin literally adding more years to our life is something I definitely would find hard to explain to convince others to join the community.