For the first time since World War II, the life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by one year during the first six months of 2020 as the COVID-19 / Trump Virus swept across the nation. Preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate minority and vulnerable communities were hit even harder:
"Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to preliminary estimates Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
'This is a huge decline,' said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. 'You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.' [snip]
'What is really quite striking in these numbers is that they only reflect the first half of the year ... I would expect that these numbers would only get worse,' said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a health equity researcher and dean at the University of California, San Francisco." (our emphasis)
As COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. stand at 490,717 as of today, it's a reminder of the deadliest legacy of fascist demagogue and sociopathic science-denier Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump, who when confronted last August with the number of people dying from the virus coldly said "it is what it is." At the time, the death toll stood at 156,000, as he encouraged businesses to reopen and scoffed at mask wearing.
