Equity in Breath

Abstract

According to life tables published in National Vital Statistics Reports in 2019, the US life expectancy of a non-Hispanic White person born in 2017 is 78.5 years. 1 For a non-Hispanic Black person, that number drops to 74.9. 1 Would it surprise you to know that it's 81.8 years for a Hispanic person? 1 At first glance, it's also puzzling why the Medicare race and ethnicity classification system on which the US life tables are based "makes it impossible to correctly identify" Asians or Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives. 1,2 With questions about what's counted, how it's counted, and who counts being asked more frequently and by more of us than ever before, how credibly these questions are answered has considerable quantity-and quality-of-life implications for individuals and communities. Through early November, almost 1.25 million people worldwide have died due to COVID-19, and nearly 235 000 of those perished in the United States, with disproportionate deaths among people of color. 3,4 Based on excess mortality data, America's death toll due to COVID-19 is likely being undercounted, 5 but some have misconstrued death certificate data to claim that it's being overcounted. 6