Life expectancy falls for second straight year due to COVID-19, drug overdoses, CDC report finds
Accelerating deaths from COVID-19 and drug overdoses fueled a second straight year of worsening life expectancy, down to the shortest it has been since 1996, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
The estimates, published in a new report now analyzing the "final data" on American death certificates tracked by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, make official a steep decline first reported by the agency based on "preliminary data" back in August.