[ti:Life Expectancy in US Drops Again] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Life expectancy in the United States [00:02.64]has dropped for the second straight year, [00:05.32]a government report said on Wednesday. [00:08.32]The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [00:11.92]estimated that the average American born in 2021 [00:17.24]will live for about 76 years. [00:20.96]The average was 78 years and 10 months in 2019. [00:27.64]And it dropped to 77 years in 2020. [00:33.40]Health officials blamed COVID-19 for half of the decrease. [00:40.48]They said the rest was connected to longstanding problems [00:45.36]such as drug overdoses, suicide and heart and liver disease. [00:53.32]Samuel Preston studies human population, [00:57.08]or demographics, for the University of Pennsylvania. [01:01.60]He called the situation "dismal," or very bad. [01:06.36]"It was bad before and it's gotten worse," he added. [01:11.60]Life expectancy is an estimate of the average number [01:15.56]of years a baby born in a given year [01:18.88]might expect to live, given death rates at that time. [01:24.56]Robert Hummer is a researcher who studies [01:27.48]population health at the University of North Carolina. [01:31.28]He said life expectancy is "the most [01:35.44]fundamental indicator of population health in this country." [01:41.80]For some racial groups in the U.S., [01:44.56]the decreases were even worse than the average. [01:48.76]For example, Native Americans' life expectancy [01:53.24]dropped by over six years during the pandemic [01:57.08]and is now at 65 years. [02:00.88]For Asian Americans, the number dropped [02:04.24]by two years to 83 years and 6 months. [02:09.44]The numbers released this week are based on early data. [02:14.08]They could get even worse [02:16.56]when all the deaths in 2021 are counted. [02:20.76]In 2020, the numbers got worse [02:25.20]by four months once all deaths were recorded. [02:30.12]The last time American life expectancy dropped [02:33.80]for two straight years was in the 1960s. [02:39.56]The report included some general numbers [02:43.48]for the U.S. population: [02:46.72]For women, life expectancy dropped by 10 months. [02:51.72]For men, it dropped a full year from 74 to 73. [02:59.88]COVID-19 deaths were the main reason for the drop. [03:04.40]But a record 107,000 Americans [03:08.76]died by accidental injuries, [03:11.84]mainly drug overdoses, in 2021. [03:18.04]White people saw their life expectancy fall about one year, [03:23.20]to 76 years and 5 months. [03:27.12]Black Americans saw their numbers drop [03:30.88]by about eight months, to 70 years and 10 months. [03:37.56]For Hispanic Americans, [03:40.20]life expectancy dropped by about two months, [03:44.04]to about 77 years and 7 months. [03:48.12]That was a much smaller drop than the year before, [03:51.68]when it was 4 years. [03:53.76]Preston, from the University of Pennsylvania, [03:58.04]believes it is because Hispanics had [04:00.76]higher vaccination rates against COVID-19 in 2021. [04:07.44]The new report said suicide was one of the causes [04:11.44]of the decrease in life expectancy in 2021, [04:15.40]as the rate of suicide has gone up in the last year [04:19.40]after dropping in 2019 and 2020. [04:24.16]I'm Dan Friedell. [04:25.96]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM