Prognosis

How the Pandemic Increased US Deaths Visualized in Eight Charts

Healthcare workers treat a patient on the Covid-19 ICU floor of the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2021.

Photographer: Allison Dinner/Bloomberg
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The emergence of Covid-19 five years ago marked one of the worst public health crises in modern history. During the pandemic’s first two years, life expectancy in the US plummeted by about 2.7 years — the steepest decline since World War II.

Here’s a closer look at these grim numbers.