'Racial Inequality May Be As Deadly As COVID-19,' Analysis Finds
A century's worth of U.S. statistics finds mortality rates and life expectancy were much worse for Black Americans during pre-pandemic years than they have been for whites during the COVID-19 crisis.
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, mortality rates and life expectancy are far better for white Americans than they are for Black people during normal, non-pandemic years, according to an analysis published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The analysis, which looked at U.S. mortality statistics back to 1900, finds an additional 1 million white Americans would have to die this year in order for their life expectancy to fall to the best-ever levels recorded for Black Americans — back in 2014. That year,
