Brian Lerick on WNYC.

Last week, Mayor Adams signed Healthy NYC into law, codifying his goal of helping New Yorkers live to at least 83 years old by 2030.

This is an explicit life expectancy goal, 83, on average.

This comes after the city saw its average life expectancy drop to 78 in 2020 due to COVID-19.

It started to recover since then, but not all the way. And it's not

just COVID causing premature deaths. Chronic illness and overdoses are sending many to an early grave,

keeping lifespans below pre-pandemic levels. So we're going to talk about some of the numbers.

And of course, it's different by different groups. and we'll delve into the specifics of the Healthy NYC Plan and some other

local public health news with the New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner, Dr. Ashwin

Vassan. Dr. Vassan, always good to have you on the program. Welcome back to WNYC.

Great to be back, Brian.

Do you want to do a quick, top-line statistical overview of life expectancy among New York City residents?

What was it? What is it?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think this plan comes out of this very basic realization that something's wrong when in the richest city, in the richest country, in the most, I guess, ostensibly powerful nation in the world, that our life expectancy is actually falling or flatlining and nationally, and that

it's not keeping pace with our peer country.

So that's a lot of this comes out of this very American story of stagnating life expectancy

over the last decade.

And then, of course, COVID hit and took a uniquely

damaging toll on New York. In 2020 alone, this city lost 4.6 years of life expectancy, dropping

from 82.6 years in 2019 to 78 years. And those drops were more dramatic for black New Yorkers who not only experienced

5.5 years of life expectancy loss, but started at a lower baseline. Six years dropped for Latino

New Yorkers. And as you mentioned in your lead-up, the causes are not just COVID-related, but you

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