For Star Trek Vulcans, the polite way to say good-bye is to say, “Live long and prosper.” For a Vulcan landing on Earth today, the possibility of that wish coming true depends a lot on what country the Vulcan visitor lands in. It would be more of a stretch if the spacefarers had landed in the United States, than if they had landed in any of sixteen other high income countries. The June 2021 issue of the British Medical Journal (The BMJ), contains an article that directly relates to long life. Its title is “Effect of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 on life expectancy across populations in the USA and other high income countries: simulations of provisional mortality data.” Continue reading →