Despite the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines (疫苗), so many people died in the second year of the pandemic in the US that the nation's life expectancy dropped for a second year in a row last year, according to a new analysis.
The analysis of government statistics found US life expectancy fell by just under half a year in 2021, adding to a dramatic drop in life expectancy that occurred in 2020. Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of population health and health expert at Virginia Commonwealth University, who helped conduct the analysis, said many of the deaths occurred in people in the prime of their lives. And Woolf added that it drove the overall US life expectancy to fall to 76.6 years—the lowest in at least 25 years.
"Shame on the US," said Noreen Goldman, a professor at Princeton University. The 2021 drop came after US life expectancy fell in 2020, dropping by almost two years. It's unclear why this happened, but Woolf and others thought it may be due in part to some Americans 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 COVID-19 vaccines, which was a factor, but also being in places that didn't observe policies like masking and social distancing that prevented spread of the virus, which was the main reason," Woolf said.
The 2021 drop also widened the gap in life expectancy between the US and other countries, the analysis found. That was due primarily to lower vaccination rates in the US, researchers said. The researchers also said a big part of that was fewer restrictions and more vaccine hesitation in the US, which resulted in lower vaccination rates and a much higher death number. The other health problems like heart attack and overweight also played a role, they said.
"We spent a fortune on medical care and we're a high-income country. Our government should be able to do far better," Goldman said.
