{"id":1670105,"date":"2022-10-03T12:38:47","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T16:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1670105"},"modified":"2022-10-03T12:41:35","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T16:41:35","slug":"ny-times-blames-a-lack-of-vaccination-and-white-people-for-u-s-life-expectancy-falling-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ny-times-blames-a-lack-of-vaccination-and-white-people-for-u-s-life-expectancy-falling-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Times Blames a Lack of Vaccination and White People for U.S. Life Expectancy Falling in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fny-times-blames-a-lack-of-vaccination-and-white-people-for-u-s-life-expectancy-falling-in-2021%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1670105&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>By James D. Agresti<br \/>October 3, 2022<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/death_toe_tag_nytimes.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The portion of the U.S. population <a href=\"https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/explorers\/coronavirus-data-explorer?time=2021-01-01..2021-12-31&amp;facet=none&amp;pickerSort=desc&amp;pickerMetric=total_vaccinations_per_hundred&amp;Metric=People+fully+vaccinated&amp;Interval=Cumulative&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Color+by+test+positivity=false&amp;country=~USA\">fully vaccinated<\/a> against Covid-19 rose from 0% at the outset of 2021 to 63% by the end of the year. Yet, the CDC recently estimated that average U.S. life expectancy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/vsrr\/vsrr023.pdf\">fell by 0.9 years<\/a> in 2021. This is in addition to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/databriefs\/db427.pdf\">1.8 year decline<\/a> in 2020\u2014and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/18\/us\/covid-life-expectancy.html\">contrary<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/health-desk.org\/articles\/what-do-we-know-about-covid-19-reducing-life-expectancy\">predictions<\/a> that Covid vaccines could reverse this carnage.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, a New York Times article by Roni Caryn Rabin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/31\/health\/life-expectancy-covid-pandemic.html\">blames<\/a> this \u201chistoric setback\u201d mainly on a lack of Covid-19 vaccination and not enough \u201cbehavioral measures to prevent infections, such as wearing masks,\u201d especially among \u201cwhite populations.\u201d Her supposed evidence of this is the following claims from Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>While other high-income countries were also hard hit in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2022.04.05.22273393v4\">most had begun to recover by last year<\/a>, he said. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Those countries had more successful vaccination campaigns and populations that were more willing to take behavioral measures to prevent infections, such as wearing masks, he said, adding: \u201cThe U.S. is clearly an outlier.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe white population did worse in 2021 than communities of color, besides Native American and Alaska Natives,\u201d Dr. Woolf said. \u201cI think that\u2019s very telling: It reflects the greater efforts by Black and Hispanics to get vaccinated, to wear masks and take other measures to protect themselves, and the greater tendency in white populations to push back on those behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Other than the U.S. being an outlier when it comes to falling life expectancy in 2021, the rest of those claims are demonstrably false.<\/p>\n<p>First, a greater portion of the U.S. population was <a href=\"https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/explorers\/coronavirus-data-explorer?time=2021-01-01..2021-12-31&amp;facet=none&amp;pickerSort=desc&amp;pickerMetric=total_vaccinations_per_hundred&amp;Metric=People+fully+vaccinated&amp;Interval=Cumulative&amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;Color+by+test+positivity=false&amp;country=USA~Europe~European+Union\">fully vaccinated<\/a> against Covid-19 than the European population throughout all of 2021. Even when limited to members of the European Union, the U.S. had a significantly higher rate of vaccination for the bulk of the year:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10612\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1290\" height=\"915\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021.png 1290w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021-300x213-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021-1024x726-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021-768x545-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/covid-19_vaccination_us_europe_european_union_2021-640x454-1.png 640w\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Second, whites had equivalent or higher Covid-19 vaccination rates than blacks and Hispanics throughout 2021:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/71\/wr\/mm7123a2.htm\">CDC survey<\/a> conducted at the end of April 2021 when \u201call U.S. adults were eligible to receive\u201d the vaccines found that the vaccination rate was 59% for whites, 46% for blacks, and 47% for Hispanics.<\/li>\n<li>A survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/racial-equity-and-health-policy\/issue-brief\/covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity-differences-limitations-across-measures\/\">September 2021<\/a> found that the vaccination rate was 71% for whites, 70% for blacks, and 73% for Hispanics.<\/li>\n<li>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/71\/wr\/mm7123a2.htm\">CDC survey<\/a> conducted at the end of November 2021 found that the vaccination rate was 79% for whites, 78% for blacks, and 81% for Hispanics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Third, masking was less common in certain segments of Europe during 2021 than the United States. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210302004534\/https:\/www.ecdc.europa.eu\/en\/covid-19\/questions-answers\/questions-answers-school-transmission\">European CDC<\/a> recommended that children under the age of 12 not wear masks in schools, while the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210709225512\/https:\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/community\/schools-childcare\/k-12-guidance.html\">U.S. CDC<\/a> recommended masking children down to two years of age, even while <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210416180047\/https:\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/community\/schools-childcare\/summer-camps.html\">outdoors at summer camps<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/375\/bmj.n3081.short\">Sweden<\/a> didn\u2019t have a mask mandate and didn\u2019t encourage masking except on public transport, leading Swedes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/375\/bmj.n3081.short\">rarely wear<\/a> them.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20211003110512\/https:\/www.government.nl\/topics\/coronavirus-covid-19\/face-masks-mandatory-in-several-places\">The Netherlands<\/a> didn\u2019t mandate masks except for transportation and when required by building managers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Moreover, a study conducted with data from 35 European countries during the winter of 2020\u201321 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cureus.com\/articles\/93826-correlation-between-mask-compliance-and-covid-19-outcomes-in-europe\">found<\/a> a \u201cmoderate positive correlation between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe,\u201d suggesting that \u201cthe universal use of masks may have had harmful unintended consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finally and most importantly, the strident assertions of the Times and Woolf are based on the childish notion that <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/eurheartj\/article\/39\/37\/3417\/5063542\">correlation proves causation<\/a>, a fallacy that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corestandards.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math_Standards.pdf#page=81\">high schoolers<\/a> are taught to avoid. That\u2019s because a correlation can be a mere coincidence or caused by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/news_face_masks_deadly_falsehoods#observational\">numerous other factors<\/a>. Worse still, their correlations are erroneous.<\/p>\n<p>Just Facts asked Woolf if the Times accurately reported his words, and he replied:<\/p>\n<p>When reporters ask me to explain why the US losses were so large, my custom is to say that more research is needed to definitively answer the question and to mention a range of potential contributing factors. Among them is how people responded to vaccination and pandemic control measures, but I usually mention a number of other factors and in all cases (try to) use conditional language such as \u201cmay have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just Facts then asked Woolf if he planned to ask the Times for a correction, and he didn\u2019t reply.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2021, NPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/06\/23\/1009611699\/the-pandemic-led-to-the-biggest-drop-in-u-s-life-expectancy-since-ww-ii-study-fi\">reported<\/a> on a study from Woolf and company about the life expectancy decline in 2020 and asked him, \u201cSo, what\u2019s the prognosis going forward in the United States?\u201d Woolf replied, \u201cI think life expectancy will rebound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given his focus on vaccines and masks, Woolf\u2019s failed prediction was likely based in part or whole on his observations of vaccine uptake and mask usage in 2021. Now that these measures failed to work or overcome other factors which may have driven down life expectancy, Woolf and the Times are calling for more of the same.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/1471-0528.15199\">Randomized controlled trials<\/a> are the only sure way to determine the effects of medical interventions. These are gold standard studies in which people are randomly assigned to receive or not receive a certain treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Several such studies have been conducted on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justfactsdaily.com\/most-objective-evidence-covid-vaccines-lives\">Covid mRNA vaccines<\/a> and on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/news_face_masks_deadly_falsehoods#gold\">cloth\/surgical masks<\/a>\u2014and none of them found that these measures save more lives than they take. Concerningly, the authors of one of these studies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justfactsdaily.com\/famed-bangladesh-mask-study-excluded-crucial-data\">won\u2019t reveal<\/a> data that speaks directly to this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By James D. AgrestiOctober 3, 2022 The portion of the U.S. population fully vaccinated against Covid-19 rose from 0% at the outset of 2021 to 63% by the end<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1670107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1670105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1670105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1670107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1670105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1670105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1670105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}