comment: >
  
  Who knew subjecting people to ever aggressive employers, work hours, fixed pay but ever rising cost of living, lack of affordable insurance and housing, invasive reproductive laws, rampant gun ownership and unaccountable pharmacy businesses would ever lead to a lowered life span!
context: Much of it isn’t even Covid. 
  
  COVID-19, drug overdoses, and accidental injury accounted for about two-thirds of the decline in life expectancy, according to the 2022 report. Other reasons included heart and liver disease and suicides.
  The drop in life expectancy would have been even greater if not for a bit of good news: decreases in deaths from chronic lung disease, pneumonia, influenza, and Alzheimer’s disease.
  
  Heart disease, liver disease, suicides… all mostly preventable. Take care of yourself, folks — both your mental and physical well-being. 
  This is also perhaps a useful reminder of the need for truly universal and affordable healthcare. >
  
  They’re mostly all preventable by having a support system and a safety net around people. This country desperately needs it >
  
  Yeah. Both. People used to say America didn’t need a very robust safety net because it had strong communities and civil life. That isn’t true anymore. >
  
  Of course it wasn't true then either... >
  
  I’d say it was true. My grandfather had a lot of close friends — member of the Rotary Club, VFW, bowling league, various civic and mutual aid organizations. My own dad knew every neighbor and was part of the volunteer fire brigade.
  Today organizations like Elks are almost all retirees and fire departments are all professionals. It’s not like it was even 30 years ago. 
  There’s actually a good book from about 20 years ago called Bowling Alone that documents the decline of community and civic life. >
  
  The problem is that people who really need help generally aren't the most socially engaged. They never were, so they're not in any clubs, churches or groups >
  
  Yeah. That’s probably true. But a huge drop on civic engagement and community in general can’t be a good thing, even if those organizations were never that much use to the desperate.
  It’s something I also notice coming back to the US from other countries. Say what you will about the failures of institutions in Mexico (for example), but Mexican people are very community-oriented and they benefit from it, psychologically and socially. It’s something we could learn from and try to rebuild somehow. 
  Or maybe we should just drink a fifth of bourbon, eat fast food, and watch reality television every night. That seems to be a popular option too! >
  
  Yeah, of course its much better to have a community than not. Humans are social animals, after all. Having it as the one and only safety net is suboptimal, but suboptimal is still way better than rock bottom. >
  
  Well yeah. Ideally you’d know people in your community and also not go bankrupt from medical bills. Both would be nice. >
  
  Not exactly a surprise with COVID being added into the top 5 causes of death. Look forward to seeing the major comeback of diseases once thought rare to further reduce the life expectancy. How many years you think before we see multiple breakouts of measles? While not nearly as common and not transmissible but how many people are going to die (or become severely deformed) from tetanus now that people are refusing those vaccines? I’m just thankful that vaccines managed to eradicate smallpox before it got a chance to wreak havoc on a gullible population of antivaxxers
  Edit: I’d like to also add that unless we get control over COVID and god knows what else gets unleashed on us we are ALL at risk for dying younger than the life expectancy if these viruses keep swooping around the globe picking off the vulnerable, we ALL will become vulnerable at some stage no matter how tough someone thinks their “natural immunity” is. >
  
  Gonna see a lot more baby graves because people won’t get TDAP shots or give their infants and toddlers that early series of shots. >
  
  You at least get a discount on the plot size! >
  
  Man I’m remembering Dr. House talking to a crunchy granola antivaxxer mom during clinic hours about the color options for “teeny-tiny baby coffins.” That’s back when the anti-vaxxers were crunchy granola people and not right-wing degens. >
  
  I don't think they care because they'll just have more kids. Imagine being a sacrifice to your parent's delusion. Happens in many forms and it vastly includes the uneducated or wannabe grifters being led astray by dead hearted "I will be a king in my head" people. >
  
  I hear the word “undereducated” a lot but there are people with advanced degrees who get into this stuff. >
  
  Now your average person in Vietnam will live longer than your average American
  Also Vietnam gdp per Capita is like $4k
  United States gdp per Capita is like $60k
  It's not a financial problem.  It's a culture problem