According to research, African-American male life expectancy has declined due to COVID-19. Sadly, the COVID-19 global pandemic has caused the most dramatic decline in American life expectancy since WWII. In addition, COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death in 2020. Therefore, coronavirus erased two years from the average for Americans lives.
Before the release of the vaccine, the average expectancy was 78.8 years in 2019. Many will see this number and not think much of it, but  social epidemiologist Dr. Zinzi Bailey said it’s “rolling back decades and decades of progress.” Bailey, a professor at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, told PBS, “we are going backward.”
What The Life Expectancy Decline Means
The 1.8 years was reduced by far less than the 11-year expectancy following the 1918 influenza pandemic. The decrease due to COVID-19 was extremely difficult for marginalized populations, specifically Black men. Black men’s life expectancy decreased by three years. While white people’s only lost an average of 1.2 during the pandemic. COVID-19 stopped the progression that Black people have made regarding expectancy. Initially, it was rising due to social, economic gain, social mobility, and more healthcare access. In 1900, African Americans were dying 14 years sooner than their white counterparts. By 2019, that margin had closed to 4.1 years.
According to Professor of Demography and Public Affairs Noreen Goldman, the impact may be due to the likelihood of Black people being essential workers and having other underlying health conditions. “This kind of excess mortality is representing structural inequalities that have existed for a long time that increase both the risk of exposure to the virus and the risk of dying from the virus,” Goldman explained.
In order to return to pre-COVID, life expectancy numbers mean “no more excess death because of COVID.”
Unfortunately, Arias believes the pandemic’s effects on life expectancy will linger for African Americans for some time. “If it was just the pandemic and we were able to take control of that and reduce the numbers of excess deaths, they may be able to gain some of the loss,” Arias said. However, as other wellness conditions worsen because of the pandemic and access to healthcare remains strained, communities of color are facing more than just the weight of excess death. “We may be seeing the indirect effects of the pandemic for some time to come.”
