Mary Talley Bowden on life expectancy: what the evidence says · JRE #2335
SUBJECT: LIFE EXPECTANCY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Life expectancy has gone down, actually. Whoops. Whoops. Despite all the vaccines.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
US life expectancy fell sharply in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has been rising since, not falling. Federal mortality data reported by NPR show life expectancy climbed to about 77.5 years in 2022, the first increase in two years. It rose again in 2023 and reached a record high of roughly 79 years in 2024, the highest ever recorded in the United States, driven by falling deaths from COVID-19, drug overdoses, heart disease, and cancer, according to STAT reporting on CDC data. Framing the trend as life expectancy having 'gone down' describes the pandemic dip while ignoring the multi-year recovery that was already in the published record by the time of this conversation, making the statement misleading.