The pandemic cut the U.S. life expectancy by a full year in the first half of 2020, reflecting the toll taken by COVID-19 as well as a rise in deaths from drug overdoses, heart attacks and diseases and side-effects caused by the coronavirus. The last time there was a drop this dramatic was during World War II. It’s a huge step backwards. Americans now have the same life expectancy as they did in 2006, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Black and Latinos were hit the hardest, with 2.7 years shaved off of the life expectancy of Black Americans, 1.9 years off of Latino Americans and 0.8 years off of White Americas.
