Judy: There is grim news today
about the state of America's
health.
The average expected lifespan
for a person in this country
shrank by over seven months last
year, according to the CDC.
That comes after an even steeper
decline in 2020.
As William brangham reports, the
primary culprits are covid-19,
and opioid overdoses.
William: Judy, because of this
decline, the average American
today is now expected to live
just 76.4 years, that's lower
than its been in nearly twenty
years.
For more on this new report, I'm
joined again by Dr.
Steven woolf.
He's director, emeritus, of the
center on society and health at
Virginia commonwealth
university.
Nice to have you back on the
newshour, although this is sort
of awful news to be talking
about.
Year and a half ago, you set
here in our studio and we talked
about a study that you had just
done, showing how lifespan in
America had dropped by over a
year.
Now the CDC report comes out
saying it has dropped another
seven months.
Did this reports of prize you --
the price you that the trend has
continued?
>> I hate to sound like an
academic, but yes and no.
It did surprise me in the sense
that 2021 was a year in which we
had a vaccine available in which
many other countries, it
recovering their life expectancy
that they -- many country saw
their life expectancy increase.
So to see ours continue to
plummet was very worrying.
It is not a surprise in the
sense that we have been tracking
what we call the U.S. Health
disadvantage for some years.
William: One thing that jumped
out in this report to me was
that unlike and last -- past
declines, where some groups
really fell behind and other
groups held on, this seemed to
be an across-the-board decline,
all age groups, all
demographics.
How do you understand that?
>> People of color in our
country were devastated by this
pandemic.
Black and hispanic, native
Americans had much higher losses
than the white population.
This new data shows they
continue to suffer losses, but
it was actually the white
population that experienced a
larger decrease in life
expectancy.
Nonetheless, death rates were
still much higher among people
of color.
We had already been aware for
the decade preceding this
pandemic that we had a problem
in this country of rising death
rates in working age population,
people 25-64.
Those groups are not
experiencing increasing death
rates in other countries, it is
just the United States that is
having this problem.
So when the pandemic struck, it
wasn't entirely a surprise that
we had a disproportionate
increase in death rates in that
young and middle-aged group.
Of course the elderly were at
higher risk so the increasing
death rates among the elderly
was also unfortunately
anticipated.
What is worrying about this
report is that it is also
reporting an increase in death
rates in children and
adolescents.
That is not something we have
seen before.
William: The -- the CDC has
blame this principally on covid
and drug overdoses.
Can you talk about alcoholism,
we don't often talk about its
impact on public health.
>> We were very much aware of
the opioid epidemic and the
rising rate of death,
alcoholics, suicide and heart
disease, all those problems
continued right into the
pandemic.
Layered upon it was the
tremendous stress his people
were experiencing.
Individuals struggling with
addictions of drugs and alcohol
were more vulnerable to those
conditions and had reduced
access to substance abuse and
counseling services to address
those problems.
So unfortunately, we have seen a
disturbing rise in deaths from
alcohol and drugs, but also our
health care system was disrupted
overall.
People with chronic diseases had
more limited access to primary
care and special services and we
saw increasing death rates from
heart disease and diabetic --
diabetes and other chronic
illnesses.
William: As you are saying we
are unique compared to other,
similar nations.
Why is that?
>> It's not because we don't
spend enough on health care.
A massive amount we spend on
health care, much higher than
other countries and much higher
than countries in which people
live longer lives and are
healthier.
So this is a lesson for us, that
health care is only a partial
answer.
Studies suggest it only accounts
for about 10%-20%, our health is
shaped by our living conditions,
jobs, the wages we are in our
wealth accumulation, the
education that enables us to get
those jobs.
We are struggling in those areas
and we are seeing our health
suffer as a result.
William: You are describing
potential remedies to arresting
this decline are fundamental,
structural changes to American
society.
It's not just vaccines to avoid
covid debts, or naloxone to
avoid overdose deaths.
You're talk about something much
more systemic.
>> If this only happened during
the pandemic, we could blame it
on a virus.
But we as a society have made a
decision.
We have to shift our priorities
if we want to be healthier and
one our children to not die
earlier.
The country in which reliving is
the richest in the world but we
have the highest level of income
inequality.
Much of the resources we need
for healthy population are not
available to much of the
population.
William: Dr. Steven woolf,
always good to see you.
Thank you.
>> Likewise, and thanks for
giving attention to this
important issue.