[coconutmama]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

China, Mexico, and India are the three primary sources for one specific drug that causes lethal overdoses: fentanyl. As of my last trip to the google map, only one of those three countries shares a border with the USA. Thankfully, the DEA has seized more of this drug this past year, than it has in the last decade that the drug has been a problem.

That tells me the DEA is doing a good job. If it weren't, they wouldn't be seizing it. It'd be killing even MORE people.

Eliminate the demand, and the supply will dwindle. It's Americans who are overdosing - because it's Americans who insist on taking the stuff.

It's not even the only opioid killing Americans. It's just the one with the most press recently. Other opioids are legally and appropriately prescribed to patients for pain management and recovery from surgery. Just because some people are happy to "bite the bullet" and take the pain, doesn't mean everyone can, or should, do the same. When I have my hip surgery (hopefully this coming year) you better believe I'll be asking for a few days' worth of Vikoden. Unapologetically.

Everyone is addressing and acknowledging this issue, it's a HUGE issue, and complex, and there is no singular solution to it. There is a singular cause: People want these drugs. For whatever reason, they want it. Legally or illegally, they want it. To manage/treat pain or to get high, they want it. That's the cause. Until/unless you can come up with an alternative to treating/managing pain, people will continue wanting it for legitimate purposes. And as long as it's available legitimately, there will be people who get hooked. When the doctor stops prescribing it, they will seek it through illegal channels.

But - you can't trust Big Pharma, supposedly. So good luck finding an alternative to severe pain caused by cancer or major surgery recovery, or severe injury, or 3rd degree burns that take months to heal. Good luck telling those folks they can no longer minimize their agony because Johnny got his fix from China. Because that just makes SO much sense.

Excellent post. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Some people fail to see the whole picture.

[Bay Kid]

Originally Posted by spinner1001

A scientific paper from the US CDC published August 2022 (link below) goes into more detail about attributed causes for the recent decline in life expectancy. It reports the single largest factor for the 2020-2021 decline is Covid and other causes were also contributing factors.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr023.pdf

I am attaching two screenshots from the paper plotting US life expectancy over time and the attributed factors affecting the recent decline — both negative and positive factors.

Could be all the covid shoots with unknown results.

[G.R.I.T.S.]

Originally Posted by Koapaka

Whatever could be the problem???


US life expectancy continues to fall, erasing 25 years of health gains

From what I’ve read regarding the vaccination of young people, I’d venture a guess that the shots are a contributing factor.

[Ski Bum]

Originally Posted by Hape2Bhr

Well, there are many interested; unfortunately it then becomes off limits here.

When an older person dies, it doesn't affect the longevity stats much. When tens of thousands of young men are dying from drugs every year, the stat tanks.

[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by Koapaka

Whatever could be the problem???


US life expectancy continues to fall, erasing 25 years of health gains

The CDC says it is due to extra people dying of Covid who would otherwise have died a few years later and the many people who have died of drug overdoses. If you don’t use illegal drugs, you don’t have to worry about the latter. It’s not things like obesity and more heart disease. Also, it’s not a very big drop.

[Susan1717]

I’m going to agree with the comments attributing much to the processed fake chemical foods and sugar consumption adding in all the million increasing fentanyl deaths and extra diseases and more covid coming across the border. Over 5 million and they’re estimating another 6 million in 2023. That will put a huge damper on hospital overload and our health care system.

[Marine1974]

Drug overdoses, Covid , murders etc etc .

[blueash]

You can attribute whatever you want in the absence of the ability to look at data and you would be certain, and certainly wrong. There has been no change in the obesity or the diet or the exercise of Americans in the last two years. You cannot blame a sudden decrease in life expectancy on this completely unchanged lifestyle.

Those above who blame the shots are completely wrong. Every single data point in every single country has produced the same finding. Shots save lives. Period. States and counties with the highest rate of acceptance of shots consistently had the lowest increased death rates during the pandemic. States and counties with the lowest rate of vaccination had higher excess death.

This is found over and over. Recently here:
COVID-19 and Excess All-Cause Mortality in the US and 20 Comparison Countries, June 2021-March 2022 | Public Health | JAMA | JAMA Network
older study here:
County-level vaccination coverage and rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States: An ecological analysis - The Lancet Regional Health – Americas

Just stop with the stupid ignorant claim that it is the shots causing excess deaths. You are wrong, dangerously wrong.

The CDC here and similar organizations in other countries has ongoing data which accurately predicts about how many people in each age/gender/race etc will die in a normal year. They can then look at the real deaths and see if the expected pattern held, or fewer deaths or more.

This is not the same measure as life expectancy but it is related. A healthy senior citizen dying of covid is an excess life lost, but does not move the average life expectancy much. You have to loose a lot of older people to see a big drop in life expectancy. But a million will do it.
A 20 yo dying of a drug overdose is also an excess life lost but has a much greater impact on overall life expectancy [years of potential life lost]. But recently it is Covid deaths which have had the major impact on life expectancy. Data for 2022 is not yet available.

The CDC regularly updates on these problems. You can subscribe to MMWR for free and get the weekly report in your email.

"The declines in life expectancy since 2019 are largely driven by the pandemic. COVID-19 deaths contributed to nearly three-fourths or 74% of the decline from 2019 to 2020 and 50% of the decline from 2020 to 2021. An estimated 16% of the decline in life expectancy from 2020 to 2021 can be attributed to increases in deaths from accidents/unintentional injuries. Drug overdose deaths account for nearly half of all unintentional injury deaths."

[maistocars]

Originally Posted by Keefelane66

When you lose over 1 million people to Covid disease during the Pandemic and recent reports of up to 400 daily from Covid it’s expected.

Does that include those who died of gunshot wounds that were classified as CV and everything else? Stop. Just stop and suggest you may want to change your viewing channels. I would be more worried about "excess deaths" and "sudden deaths" in healthy individuals resulting from you know what. My word...
.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

China, Mexico, and India are the three primary sources for one specific drug that causes lethal overdoses: fentanyl. As of my last trip to the google map, only one of those three countries shares a border with the USA. Thankfully, the DEA has seized more of this drug this past year, than it has in the last decade that the drug has been a problem.

That tells me the DEA is doing a good job. If it weren't, they wouldn't be seizing it. It'd be killing even MORE people.

Or, they are now smuggling in such massive quantities that a "blind squirrel would be able to seize more of the drugs...

And it's customs and border patrol who are finding the majority of the drugs being "smuggled across our shared border"...

Eliminate the demand, and the supply will dwindle. It's Americans who are overdosing - because it's Americans who insist on taking the stuff.

Easier said than done. When you eliminate the jobs of a large segment o the population, people turn to drugs... A story old as time...

It's not even the only opioid killing Americans. It's just the one with the most press recently. Other opioids are legally and appropriately prescribed to patients for pain management and recovery from surgery. Just because some people are happy to "bite the bullet" and take the pain, doesn't mean everyone can, or should, do the same. When I have my hip surgery (hopefully this coming year) you better believe I'll be asking for a few days' worth of Vikoden. Unapologetically.

Everyone is addressing and acknowledging this issue, it's a HUGE issue, and complex, and there is no singular solution to it. There is a singular cause: People want these drugs. For whatever reason, they want it. Legally or illegally, they want it. To manage/treat pain or to get high, they want it. That's the cause. Until/unless you can come up with an alternative to treating/managing pain, people will continue wanting it for legitimate purposes. And as long as it's available legitimately, there will be people who get hooked. When the doctor stops prescribing it, they will seek it through illegal channels.

But - you can't trust Big Pharma, supposedly. So good luck finding an alternative to severe pain caused by cancer or major surgery recovery, or severe injury, or 3rd degree burns that take months to heal. Good luck telling those folks they can no longer minimize their agony because Johnny got his fix from China. Because that just makes SO much sense.

Straw man argument... It's not the dozen Vicodin you get post op that's killing people

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Koapaka

Whatever could be the problem???


US life expectancy continues to fall, erasing 25 years of health gains

Someone may have already said this. If so I apologize in advance........Many US citizens and maybe other citizens of the world are dying of fentanyl overdoses - mainly those between the ages 25 and 45. There are probably other issues, but I believe that fentanyl is the main reason. And the early Delta Covid killed about 1 million. And STILL continues to kill although at a smaller rate due to the strange phenomenon of the anti-vaccers.

[JMintzer]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

Someone may have already said this. If so I apologize in advance........Many US citizens and maybe other citizens of the world are dying of fentanyl overdoses - mainly those between the ages 25 and 45. There are probably other issues, but I believe that fentanyl is the main reason. And the early Delta Covid killed about 1 million. And STILL continues to kill although at a smaller rate due to the strange phenomenon of the anti-vaccers.

Except it is the vaxx'ed people who are now dying at a greater rate...

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

That horse has been beaten beyond recognition.

Then, they must be CURRENTLY beating a lot of horses in China!

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Two Bills

Taking TV as a microcosm of over 55's in US.
Obesity.
Overeating
Lack of exercise.
Processed food consumption.
Sugary drinks and booze.
Its a wonder average life expectancy is as high as it is.

Those factors are truly problems associated with US citizens since after WW2 when we left the farm environment for the city industrial life. The link in the original post talks about decreasing lifespan after 1996 and how the increase is getting worse in recent years. So, there is a NEW factor or factors that have happened recently and started happening after 1996. That is WHY I suggested fentanyl and Covid as the likely causes.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Koapaka

I am amazed no one even considered the obvious given the age group that most of these deaths are occurring in. Drugs pouring across our borders that are killing more people per year than the Vietnam war did. In a SINGLE year, yet no one seems interested in addressing or even acknowledging this issue.
Drug overdoses killed more Americans last year than the Vietnam War - CBS News

I thought of that right away and furthermore........the fentanyl scourge is taking out the most productive age group in the US. And I see it as a conspiracy plot hatched out by both Russia and China either separately or in concert. It is as effective as a bloodless coup or invasion and very cost-effective to our enemies. It is also possible ( I am saying possible, not absolutely) that the Pandemic was a Plan-demic and Russian trolls used propaganda to create an atmosphere of anti-vaccine attitudes. Even using religion against the US and the shots. Their objective is a divide and conquer (inexpensively). On that score, they are succeeding!

If I were in charge of the world, I would give life imprisonment to fentanyl dealers and also move the US economy quickly away from the Chinese economy by using A.I. and robotics to make the things that China makes for us now. Yes, the transition would be tough, but sometimes the easy way out is NOT the best way.