According to a recent study by Wall Street, the life expectancy of the US could drop by 2 to 3 years due to Covid-19. The pandemic has already caused a lot of damage and this news shows that the virus is not done with us yet.
According to the CDC, an increase in the life expectancy rate recorded in 2019 reached 78.8 years as the country was able to reduce deaths related to heart diseases and cancer. However, now the number of Covid-19 cases is increasing rapidly and there’s little we can do. On Monday, the number of infected cases passed the 18 million mark with more than 320,000 deaths in total.
If you compare the deaths during the pandemic with other leading causes of death in the U.S., the numbers are quite devastating. Around 659,000 people died of heart disease in the US whereas around 600,000 people became the victim of cancer and died.
As depressing as it may sound, according to recent projections, deaths can reach more than 5,000 per day in the US alone. Robert Anderson from the CDC explained that due to the sharp increase in a number of deaths, it is very likely that life expectancy could drop by about 2 to 3 years.
Although the vaccine has been rolled out and several famous personalities including Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci got vaccinated live on TV to create trust among people. But the death rate does not appear to slow down.
According to reports, a new variant of the coronavirus has been detected, which is potentially more contagious than before. Although, HHS Secretary Alex Azar ensured the effectiveness of the vaccine against the newly discovered variant, to which Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech SE agreed.Due to the apparent failure to combat the impact of this deadly virus, Deborah Bix, a senior advisor of the Trump administration resigned from her position as she thinks that the failure to fight the pandemic by the Trump task force has smeared her reputation. However, she is willing to help the Biden administration in any way she can, whereas, Donald Trump talked with pride about the vaccine distribution.
More than 600,000 Americans including healthcare workers had been vaccinated by this Monday. The deaths could outpace births in various counties of the US, according to demographer, Kenneth M Johnson, because a majority is not planning to have a child in a pandemic.
This reversal in births and the increased death rate is shortening the life expectancy in the US.
