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US life expectancy fall hits black and Hispanic communities

Life expectancy in the United States last year suffered its biggest drop since World War Two.  It declined by 18 months across the population, but among black and Hispanic Americans, it was twice as bad and decreased by three years.  Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the pandemic was the main reason for the fall.

Professor Thomas LaVeist, a health equity expert at Tulane University in New Orleans, US, explains that not only did the pandemic mean that people from the black and Hispanic community were doing jobs that brought them into contact with more people, rather than have the opportunity to work from home, having the disease brings about long-term health issues that has created more economic inequality. He says that prioritising testing and vaccination could have mitigated these negative effects of the pandemic.

Photo: A group of people checking their phones Credit: Getty Images

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