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U.S. Life Expectancy Fell By 1.5 Years In 2020, The Biggest Drop Since WW II:
Life expectancy in the United States declined by a year and a half in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the coronavirus is largely to blame.
COVID-19 contributed to 74% of the decline in life expectancy from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
It was the largest one-year decline since World War II, when life expectancy dropped by 2.9 years between 1942 and 1943. Hispanic and Black communities saw the biggest declines.
[...] "The range of factors that play into this include income inequality, the social safety net, as well as racial inequality and access to health care," Curtis said.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday July 21 2021, @06:04PM (8 children)
As a spiritual non-atheist, non-agnostic, I disagree. I fervently pray all the time that the people who won't get vaccinated and wear masks employ critical thinking bereft of political and emotional interference.
Spirituality and critical thinking, or logic and reason, are not mutually exclusive modalities in which to live your life.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by slinches on Wednesday July 21 2021, @06:27PM (5 children)
I agree that critical thinking and prayer are not mutually exclusive. However, the decision on covid vaccines and mask wearing are mostly political and emotional up to this point rather than rational regardless of which side of those debates you fall on. The only conclusion that I think can be firmly drawn from a rational evaluation of the available data at this point is that the vaccines are effective against covid and have low enough risk that those at elevated risk from covid (e.g. underlying conditions or 65+) should take them. And from what I can tell, the vaccination rates for that population are quite high (~90%) with the remaining population groups getting vaccinated at rates relatively proportional to their covid risk levels. So it seems to me like people are generally making rational, evidence based choices based on their own particular circumstances.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday July 21 2021, @07:08PM (4 children)
In some cases, mask wearing may be more driven by behavior or tendency [psychologytoday.com] than a decision. But if the article's correct ... we have a huge part of the US population with what would appear to be a pretty serious behavioral situation.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 21 2021, @07:43PM (2 children)
Yeah, living in the USA causes autism. It just happens to correlate with all the vaccinations they get. But it's actually caused by parents that won't control their spoiled brats
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 21 2021, @08:27PM (1 child)
Autism is the new gay, to be condemned and corrected by therapy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 23 2021, @03:09AM
Both are forms of arrested development, failure to mature
(Score: 2) by slinches on Wednesday July 21 2021, @07:59PM
That's a clickbait opinion article on Psychology Today. So, not correct at all beyond the references existing is a pretty safe bet.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday July 21 2021, @08:59PM (1 child)
I don't know who modded you Troll for that. I'm in the same camp of "not an atheist, but not belonging to any one religion either" and don't see the problem there. Specific kinds of religion, like the Abrahamic ones, are definitely counter to critical thought, but believing there is a God isn't.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @02:00PM
The problem is inherent to large organizations. Not even necessarily religious ones - think about Apple's notorious "reality distortion field." Or any number of non religious Republicans that keep insisting that covid isn't real.
Rabbinic tradition is all about study and critical thinking. Most of the Hebrew Bible is written so that it is just difficult enough that you have to think about it to understand it.
When Thomas doubted Jesus had been resurrected, Jesus told him to touch his body, feel his wounds. Almost all of the resurrection story - the most important thing in Christianity by far - is about people believing their eyes after seeing Jesus, when they knew he must be dead.
Islam, honestly I don't know enough about the Koran.
But the religion isn't against critical thinking. Only the churches have made it so, because their power on Earth depends on it.