‘We Should Be Really Alarmed’: U.S. Life Expectancy Drops Due To Staggering Rate Of Overdose Deaths
The United States has not seen two years of declining life expectancy since 1962 and 1963, and the numbers paint a grim picture if the opioid epidemic is not brought under control.
The Washington Post:
Fueled By Drug Crisis, U.S. Life Expectancy Declines For A Second Straight Year
American life expectancy at birth declined for the second consecutive year in 2016, fueled by a staggering 21 percent rise in the death rate from drug overdoses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The United States has not seen two years of declining life expectancy since 1962 and 1963, when influenza caused an inordinate number of deaths. In 1993, there was a one-year drop during the worst of the AIDS epidemic. (Bernstein and Ingraham, 12/21)
NPR:
Life Expectancy Drops As Opioid Deaths Surge
"I'm not prone to dramatic statements," says Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics. "But I think we should be really alarmed. The drug overdose problem is a public health problem and it needs to be addressed. We need to get a handle on it." (Stein, 12/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
Overdose Deaths Drive Down U.S. Life Expectancy—Again
The last time the U.S. experienced a back-to-back fall in life expectancy, in 1962 and 1963, a bad flu season was to blame, Bob Anderson, chief of mortality statistics at CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, said in an interview. The previous consecutive-year decline was in 1925-26, which was likely due to infectious disease, he said. (Whalen, 12/21)