Thank you for the thought-provoking articles about the decline in U.S. life expectancy in recent years, and how our life expectancy is lagging behind many other countries (“Life & (earlier) death,” Star-Advertiser, Insight, April 9).
Steven Johnson, author of “Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer,” postulates that perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the 20th century was the doubling of life expectancy over a 100-year period through medical advances, public health improvements and even government and social initiatives.
The reversal of U.S. life expectancy predates the COVID-19 pandemic, but was accelerated by it. Turning around this decline should be a major national priority, and will require the best efforts of our leaders at a national, state and local level.
While Hawaii still enjoys the highest life expectancy of any state, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows life expectancy here declined from 81.0 years in 2018, to 80.9 in 2019, and then to 80.7 in 2020. Collectively, we should take action to get life expectancy trending upward again.
Stephen Lung
Kaimuki
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