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On average, women live longer than men. But the gap between the genders in terms of average life expectancy has varied over the decades and currently in the US that gap is at its widest point for some 30 years. A new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association says there is now almost six years between the genders when it comes to average life expectancy in the US, with women averaging some 79.3 years to men's 73.5 years.

Dr Brandon Yan from the University of California and lead author of the study told Newsday that the reasons are much higher rates of Covid-19 plus an opioid epidemic that's killing men at double the rate it's killing women. This he says, is related to deaths of despair, which reflects death from worsening mental health, social isolation and how men are generally sicker and more pre-disposed to severe cases of Covid.

( Photo shows the aging hand of a visitor at the lunch table of the seniors centre at the Kingston Council On Aging in the US in Massachusetts Jan. 25, 2018. Credit Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)