Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Quoted in Press TV Report: Study Says Big Drop in Life Expectancy for Blacks, Hispanics in US

Thursday, 24 June 2021 4:27 PM

Press TV 

A new study has found that a big drop in life expectancy, especially for Blacks, Hispanics, in the United States. 

The study published in the British Medical Journal finds that US life expectancy declined by the largest amount since World War II between 2018 and 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 600,000 people in the United States.  

US life expectancy declined by 1.87 years between 2018 and 2020, from 78.74 years to 76.87 years, according to the study. 

The drop was disproportionately high among Black and Hispanic people in the US. Life expectancy declined by 3.88 years among Hispanic people, and 3.25 years among Black people, and only 1.36 years among White people. 

“The US had a much larger decrease in life expectancy between 2018 and 2020 than other high income nations, with pronounced losses among the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black populations,” the authors write. 

Richard, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the results should be a wake-up call for Americans. 

“For decades, the US has been losing ground in life expectancy to other wealthy nations, and these findings show that the gap widened even more due to Covid-19,” he said in a statement. 

“The study further confirms that how long people live in the United States depends in large part on income, skin color, and geography,” added Besser, who is also a former acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We must use this moment to correct the mistakes of the past and create a fairer and more just future,” he added.

COVID-19 'disproportionately' killing African Americans, Latinos: Analyst

Summary: The COVID-19 is “disproportionately” killing African-Americans, and Latinos, an African American journalist says.

Racial factors in the United States are "disproportionately" causing more African Americans and Latin Americans to die from the COVID-19 outbreak compared to other groups living in the country, according to an African American journalist in Detroit.

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at the Pan-African News Wire, told Press TV in an interview on Tuesday that Americans belonging to oppressed strata in US society, such as African-Americans and Latinos," have been suffering immensely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The analyst said institutionalized racism in the United States is a main factor plunging these groups into dire conditions.