The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Dec. 22 that U.S. life expectancy had fallen to the lowest level in 25 years. After a drop of 1.8 years in 2020, another cut of 0.6 years in 2021 brought U.S. life expectancy down to 76.4 years. This is a stunning rate of collapse – life expectancy typically only changes by 0.1 or 0.2 years – and it is the worst drop in life expectancy in 100 years, according to the CDC. The two main reasons for the plunge, the CDC reports, are the Covid pandemic and soaring drug overdoses.
Although the CDC does not put it this way, both are markers of an overall societal collapse, and consequent plunge of the potential relative population density, which has now entered a systemic breakdown stage. We are killing ourselves, by tolerating deadly policies.
Over 1.1 million Americans are reported to have died from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic almost three years ago, in early 2020. Another 1 million-plus have died from drug overdoses in the last 20 years, with these deaths increasing significantly throughout the pandemic, reaching the record level of almost 107,000 in 2021.
