"I think it started before COVID and I think it’s continued even here afterwards. I think it’s more than, more than just COVID. I mean, I think that there’s deaths of despair. I think you have (drugs),” DeSantis said. Life expectancy in the U.S. has decreased to 76.4 years in 2023 from 77.28 in 2020, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.