Black Mortality Rates Reflect 1.6M Excess Deaths Over Span of 22 Years

A new study has revealed high statistics for the Black community concerning its death rate.

Published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a study found the mortality rate for Black Americans spanning over two decades equated to 1.63 million excess deaths compared to white people. From 1999 to 2020, the Black community was cut short of over 80 million years of life, considering the number of Black people who died at younger ages.

According to NBC News, the study’s authors believe the results amplify the necessity to improve the health of Black Americans, who often die at higher rates from heart disease, cancer, and infant mortality.

Herman Taylor, an author of the study and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine, believes the study is significant for every life lost in the Black American community.

“Real lives are being lost. Real families are missing parents and grandparents,” Taylor said. “Babies and their mothers are dying. We have been screaming this message for decades.”

Clyde Yancy, another author of the study, is the chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Yancy linked the excess death rates to the country’s long history of discrimination against Blacks in areas including education, housing, and employment.

“It’s very clear that we have an uneven distribution of health,” Yancy said regarding the redlined Black neighborhoods that experienced higher rates of poverty and poor health, such as the COVID-19 virus. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that Black Americans suffered numerous deaths from the COVID virus.

A report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health revealed that non-Hispanic Black newborns were 2½ times as likely to die before their first birthdays as non-Hispanic whites. According to The American Journal of Managed Care, non-Hispanic Black mothers saw higher death rates related to pregnancy than non-Hispanic whites.