The year 2020 was the deadliest year on record in the United States with over 3 million total deaths which the coronavirus pandemic contributed to, but Americans have not collectively suffered equally.
We already know the coronavirus pandemic has killed a higher percentage of minorities who have more risk factors for a variety of social and economic reasons, but what minority communities experienced in the last year has permanently reduced their average life expectancy by a staggering amount.
Americans have collectively lost one year of their life according to the CDC, but black Americans have lost almost three years.
Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting.
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.”
Given that this study from the CDC only includes the first half of 2020 and does not actually include the bulk of coronavirus deaths, we can only infer that these numbers will look worse when all is said and done.
For the former Trump regime and Republicans still in Congress today, this is a feature; not a bug.
Minority communities didn't just suffer worse outcomes in the last year because they have other health problems. They also suffered worse outcomes because they were the most exposed to the coronavirus. Republicans spent the bulk of 2020 refusing to pass more relief that would allow people to stay home and stay safe. Forcing service and retail workers to unequally expose themselves was a deliberate choice made by Republicans. The higher percentage of deaths among Black and Latino Americans was their decision.
Let's never forget that infecting as many people as possible was actually the Trump regime's strategy for the last seven months of his term in office.