"The pandemic, which took a disproportionate toll on men, was the biggest contributor to the widening gap from 2019-2021, followed by unintentional injuries and poisonings (mostly drug overdoses), accidents, and suicide"
So basically it is 'interrupts to life' which reduce US (and every other country's) mens life expectancy to significantly below that of women in the same country. The question is whether this is par for the course or a social injustice?
The decline in life expectancy for US males is unique in the rich world, sharply bringing down overall US life expectancy. The causes are largely covid, opioids, guns and cars.
It was a strange realization growing up in America that at some point American Exceptionalism had begun to mean learned helplessness. I'm told repeatedly that those factors are unsolvable problems of humanity and there is nothing the government can do to ameliorate them. As you say, the evidence of the other countries would seem to contradict this, yet that never seems to matter.
So basically it is 'interrupts to life' which reduce US (and every other country's) mens life expectancy to significantly below that of women in the same country. The question is whether this is par for the course or a social injustice?