Peter GleickIt's not just the recent massive drop in life expectancy from the Trump/GOP disastrous anti-vaxx, failed Covid19 response.
It's also how badly the US has been lagging for decades because of guns, poor maternal and child health care, cars, and more guns.
Alex Wild@petergleick at some point, many empirical measures will no longer classify the United States as a “developed” country.
CelloMom On CarsThere is a spectrum of Americas. It would be instructive to add each income decile of Americans onto this graph.
Look @xandris someone went through the data and oooh boy.
From an article by John Burn-Murdoch who doesn't post much here so here is a bluebird thread where he serves up highlights from the article, including this stunner:
"One in 25 American five-year-olds today will not make it to their 40th birthday."
You gotta read the whole thread.
John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) on X
NEW: I’m not sure people fully appreciate how dire the US life expectancy / mortality situation has got. My column: https://t.co/dBIhT9eZLv And some utterly damning charts. 1) at *every* point on the income distribution, Americans live shorter lives than the English.
The #US map below shows the average age of death, ranging from 66.8 years (deep red) to 86.8 years (deep blue). There is a good reason for the choice of colors.
"These geographical disparities aren’t artifacts of pure geography or demographics; they’re the consequences of policy decisions at the state level." And that depends on state politics.
Albert Cardona@alexwild @petergleick Always looked like an exemplar bimodal distribution: some of the best things, some of the worst things. Forces the foreigner to really do the research prior to visiting/living in the US. By its breadth, it’s more like a continent, not a country.
System IV, Building K@albertcardona @alexwild @petergleick It’s actually easy and lacking nuance. The northeastern and western extremes are productive and as progressive as they can be, while paying for the south and western flyover territory’s welfare.
josh buermann'Always be building on the successes of Obamacare.'
Cecilia Mjausson Huster@petergleick "The important point about the U.S. health disadvantage is not that the United States is losing a competition with other countries, but that Americans are dying and suffering at rates that are demonstrably unnecessary." #healthcare
Montana Magpie@petergleick — Are we allowed to say “failed state” yet?
gavinisdie 
@petergleick with our Healthcare system, I'm suprised our average life expectancy isn't in the 50s
Ben Gleeson@petergleick yeah Covid, but look at the chronic change in trajectory that starts with Ronald “greed is good” Reagan
Tim Richards@petergleick @stufromoz Good read. Universal healthcare would seem the logical starting point in fixing things.
bouriquet@petergleick Don’t talk about “standard of living”
@martlund 🌲🐶🇸🇪🇨🇱🌈@petergleick And, had it not been for the lies and mishandling of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands might not have died and yet the scumbag still walks free. SMH
BeBo@petergleick But it’s not limited to the US — I read somewhere just today that the Brits have been obliged to scrap plans to increase their retirement age from 66(!) to 68 (!!) because an inadequate response to Covid caused a drop (by a further two years) in average life expectancy …
Cecillus@petergleick when do they stop being peer countries?
Neil E. Hodges@petergleick The lack of concern around mental and physical health shows how little the US cares about the well-being of its citizens.
Cappiello@petergleick I saw this about the same time as the news that RFK Jr is running for president. It's a fun coincidence since he's partially responsible for the decline in life expectancy.