Thread by @opinion

Nearly 19% more Americans died in 2020 than in 2019, according to the @CDCgov.

This is the biggest such increase since 1918, when deaths rose 30%.

Deadly pandemics will do that trib.al/HwnE7fo

There are three different U.S. mortality stories:

— Americans 65+: Mortality rates have been in steady decline for almost a century
— Ages 45 through 64: Declines have been less steady
— Infants and children: Declines since 1900 have been spectacular trib.al/KbZRbU1

Infants have gone from being the age group with the second-highest mortality rate to middle of the pack.

Small children have gone from middle of the pack to second-lowest.

Kids ages 5 through 14 have always had the lowest mortality rate trib.al/KbZRbU1

The observation that downward mortality trends have reversed in recent years for some groups of Americans is not new.

Research has identified those without college degrees and rural Americans as especially troubled trib.al/KbZRbU1

Advances in overall life expectancy stalled in the U.S. after 2010 while continuing in other wealthy countries because:

➡️ Rising mortality due to external causes
➡️ Slowing in declines in deaths from internal causes, chiefly cardiovascular diseases trib.al/KbZRbU1

For young adults, the medical and public-health advances that have helped bring overall mortality down over time can be overwhelmed by a:

➡️ Crime wave
➡️ Drug-overdose epidemic
➡️ Pandemic that turns the world upside-down trib.al/KbZRbU1

The takeoff of U.S. young adult mortality relative to other countries over the past two decades is mainly about drug overdoses trib.al/KbZRbU1

The U.S. young adult death rate was on the high end due to persistently higher death rates from traffic accidents and homicides.

This is probably because:

🚘 We drive more
🚓 Have laxer speeding enforcement
🔫 Have a lot more guns trib.al/KbZRbU1

If you want fewer young American adults to die, finding a way to stop the opioid epidemic would clearly save the most lives.

Reducing gun violence and driving, and installing lots more speed cameras, would help, too trib.al/KbZRbU1