USA Today reports: What does the recent drop in life expectancy in the U.S. tell us?

Head shot of Jennifer Karas Montez

During the pandemic in 2020, life expectancy in the U.S. suffered the biggest drop since World War II, declining by 1.5 years with Black and Hispanic populations seeing even larger drops. According to former post-doc fellow Jennifer Karas Montez who is interviewed by USA Today, the downward trend in U.S. life expectancy and the increasing social and economic inequalities that were taking place before the pandemic hit must be addressed.

“Even if we were to vaccinate 100% of the population, I think we would go back to the very precarious situation we were in, in 2019 in terms of life expectancy,” Karas Montez said. “We have got to shore up our foundation here in terms of the social, economic and health care infrastructure.”