Why are American lives getting shorter?

"Life expectancy for Americans has suffered a historic drop in the last couple of years, according to new estimates from the CDC and a June preprint study. While every demographic’s life expectancy dropped in 2020 and 2021, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities were hit the hardest. Life expectancy at birth — or how long a person is expected to live if nothing in the world changes — is usually calculated by using death rate data within each age group. So while life expectancy isn’t a prediction of how long a baby born today will live, the drop reveals the scale of untimely deaths during Covid-19. What we are seeing is the steepest drop in life expectancy since World War II."