If 2021 are super scary times, 1971 must have been UBER scary.

60 years ago American heart association came out with full assault against smoking, and you can see as smoking has declined, death rates have dropped since then, might be a factor.

It is surprisingly stable, as modern medicine has improved so much and saved so many. I agree with the rise in obesity ,weighing ( no pun) the numbers down….just a guess, though…

Car safety has come a long way

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60 years ago American heart association came out with full assault against smoking, and you can see as smoking has declined, death rates have dropped since then, might be a factor.

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Good take - I was a 3+ packs a day smoker who gave it up on the request by my 13 year old daughter in 1973. She said that was "all I want for my birthday". Never touched another one since that moment.

Of maybe bc of all the action we have taken that the death rate isn’t as high as if didn’t take steps to curtail the spread of the virus?

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Yeah, that's why it's so surprising that the mortality rate has only fallen less than 1%. I'm guessing that the demise of the nuclear family, with sit down home cooked meals, and the rise of fast food and all of the problems caused by obesity from that, has kept the rate higher.

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Even with sit down home cooked meals, so much of what we make is prepared food. My great aunt, God rest her soul, used to chastise my mother growing up about what she served us. "All this stuff is fake and processed. We used to actually make breaed with yeast and flower and water. Same with the tortillas. all you feed these kids is crap"

Thing of it is, she'd back it up. Into the kitchen she'd go and dammit if her bread and tortillas and anything else she made didnt taste ten times better than what was at the store. and im not talking like a little bit. It was like eating taco bell and then going out to have Dan Barber (blue hill farms, ftw!) make you a meal.

This is the point where smoking had already begun to drop, just as high fructose corn syrup was just entering the marketplace and slowly but surely taking the place of cane and beet sugar in many products as a lower cost alternative. Obesity and Type II Diabetes began to rise a few years later.

Medical advances really abounded since then to keep these fat people alive.

Did 1971 include Vietnam War casualties?

It was. I started the 5th grade in 1971 and my teacher was a mean old bag.