A baby born in 2021 in the United States has a life expectancy of 76.4 years, the lowest on record since 1996. A baby born in 2019 has a life expectancy of 78.8 years, so that is a drop of 2.4 years in two years time. According to the CDC, we’ve hit a 25 year low, which is credited to two factors – the COVID-19 pandemic and an epidemic of substance abuse and drug addiction.

There were nearly 107,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2021, a 16% increase in the number of deaths in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic only exacerbated the growing drug addiction epidemic with widespread shutdowns, isolating people susceptible to addiction. The lack of social interaction with others and isolation from support networks to keep them from substance abuse played a big role in the increase.

Heart disease and cancer remain the two most prevalent causes of death in the U.S.

The drop in life expectancy is almost identical for men and women – 0.7 years among men and 0.6 years among women. For men, life expectancy is 73.5 years, 79.3 years for women.

COVID-19 is still with us and will be for the foreseeable future. It’s a part of our lives now.

The death rate from Covid-19 grew in 2021 to 104.1 per 100,000 people from 85 in 2020 likely due to the impact of the faster spreading and more virulent Delta variant of the coronavirus.

While the widespread availability of vaccines has blunted the number of severe Covid-19 cases and deaths, the viral disease will likely remain a major cause of death in 2022 also. As of Thursday, the U.S. has recorded more than 271,000 Covid deaths in 2022, which is nearly 750 deaths per day. The toll, however, is lower than the 350,000 Covid-19 deaths recorded in 2020 and more than 475,000 recorded in 2021.

The rise in drug overdoses is horrifying. The opioid crisis is real and destroying families, with fentanyl deaths rising 22% between 2020 and 2021.

A separate analysis by the NCHS found that 106,699 deaths linked to drug overdoses were reported in the U.S. in 2021—a 14% rise from 2020. Adjusted for age, the national death rate from drug overdose in 2021 was more than four and a half times of what it was in 2001. According to the report, deaths linked to opioids other than methadone—including drugs like fentanyl—rose 22% between 2020 and 2021, while deaths caused by heroin dropped by 32%. The analysis also found that deaths linked to the use of cocaine—which has been sharply rising since 2012—was 22% higher in 2021 compared to the previous year.

The CDC said that just because COVID-19 deaths are on the decline, it doesn’t mean that life expectancy will rebound quickly. The mental health crisis brought on by the pandemic lingers.

CDC statistician Kenneth Kochanek told NPR that although COVID-19 deaths are on the decline, this doesn’t mean life expectancy will rebound quickly in the years to come, because it wasn’t the only contributor to the higher death toll in 2021.

The data also points to a mental health crisis, with drug overdose deaths reaching over 106,000 last year, which has a massive effect on life expectancy.

There was also an increase in deaths by suicide and from liver disease caused by alcohol, which also shortened the American life span.

“The majority of those deaths are to younger people, and deaths to younger people affect the overall life expectancy more than deaths to the elderly,” Mr. Kochanek told NPR.

I give Joe Biden the blame for the drug crisis due to his open border policies. The drug cartels run the southern border because of a lack of policies and agreements that were once in place during the previous administration. Biden eliminated as many of those as he could on his first day in office. He deliberately created the Biden border crisis. Since then, record numbers of seizures of drugs like fentanyl and other opioids have been recorded. The drugs not seized make their way into the interior of the United States and destroy communities across the country. The buck stops with the president. It is his job to secure the borders and maintain America’s sovereignty.

Biden can also be blamed to some extent for the increase in mental health problems with ordinary Americans. Teacher unions kept schools closed long after it was necessary, if you believe that it was ever necessary in the first place. Local officials in communities across the country – especially in blue states and cities run by Democrats in red states – embraced their inner authoritarian and locked down their cities. Children were home and falling behind in their education due to online learning. Parents were home because their jobs either disappeared or transitioned to work-from-home situations. The strain on families was impossible to deny.

Whether you blame Joe Biden for most of these problems, as I do, or not, life is more difficult in Biden’s America. We are not heading in the right direction, whether it’s the economy, national security, foreign policy, or public health. There is no sense of urgency coming from the administration. The yes men and women around the president keep telling him everything is fine. How else can we justify why they continue to play catch-up when a crisis develops? They always seem to be playing defense, not offense, even with warning signs are clear in advance. I have never seen such an ill-prepared administration. It’s amazing, considering the president has been in elected office for fifty years. He told us the grown-ups, the professionals, would be in charge. As it turns out, not so much.