Covid Is Not the Country’s Only Health Crisis

David Leonhardt: “Covid-19 has caused the largest decline in U.S. life expectancy since World War II, the federal government reported yesterday. But Covid is not the only reason that life expectancy in this country fell last year to its lowest level in almost two decades.”

“Even before the pandemic, the U.S. was mired in an alarming period of rising mortality. It had no modern precedent: During the second half of the 2010s, life expectancy fell on a sustained basis for the first time since the fighting of World War II killed several hundred thousand Americans.”

“It’s hard to imagine a more alarming sign of a society’s well-being than an inability to keep its citizens alive.”