COVID-19 shortens life expectancy, especially for men in US, study finds

TAMPA, Florida – New study reveals COVID-19[female[feminine wiped out years of progress made by several countries in improving life expectancy, including the United States. It is a sobering reminder of the results of the pandemic around the world.

The the study is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on 29 countries. The study found that there was a loss of life expectancy in all but two cases.

“It just helps to underline the kind of toll this pandemic has made not only in the United States, but the world,” said Dr. Jason Salemi, associate professor of epidemiology at the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida.

Around the world, the virus has wreaked havoc. On 4.75 million people have died from it, including more than 680,000 lives lost in the United States.

“Every place around the world has tended to experience higher mortality than expected,” Salemi said.

Researchers have linked these Deaths from covid-19 to a drop in life expectancy. The reductions were larger for men than for women in most countries, with more than a year reduction for men in 11 countries and in eight countries for women.

This wiped out the advances in mortality made over the past five to six years.

The biggest drop was in American men, whose life expectancy fell by 2.2 years compared to 2019.

“Because people are dying younger than they would have died in the absence of this pandemic, life expectancy, on the whole, has been reduced,” said Salemi.

Life expectancy is the average age of a newborn baby, if current death rates are maintained throughout their life. It does not predict an actual lifespan.

Still, experts say this should be a wake-up call.

“If we can start managing COVID-19 the same way we manage seasonal flu, we have these booster doses. We are aware of how the virus mutates and new variants are emerging. And we stay on We continue to break down barriers to immunization. We need to reduce the annual toll of this virus on our society, ”said Salemi.

As we get better, our life expectancy should start to increase.