Over 18 Million People Have Died From the Pandemic, Large Study Estimates

According to a report out Friday, the death toll from covid-19 may be three times higher than the official numbers show. According to the study, over 18 million people have died due to the Pandemic.

The world has surpassed 6 million covid-19 deaths since the emergence of the coronaviruses in late 2019. It has been clear from the beginning that many more people have died from covid-19 than the numbers suggest. Excess death data is used to compare mortality records during a specific time period against the average baseline seen in recent years to better understand the costs of the Pandemic. The U.S. has been estimated to have excess mortality throughout the Pandemic. The first peer-reviewed study to try to gauge it on a global scale was published by the authors of this latest report.

They estimate that there have been 18.2 million excess deaths caused by the Pandemic, which is more than the official deaths recorded at the time. Not every country was hit the same.

The study found that India alone saw more than 4 million deaths, with a large share coming from the peak of the Delta variant last year. The U.S. and Russia both saw over a million deaths. Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia had the highest death toll. Only a few countries, such as Australia and Singapore, saw fewer deaths than expected.

While the U.S. deserves a lot of criticism for its handling of the Pandemic, the data shows that covid-19 has been deadlier elsewhere. The highest death rates were seen in parts of Latin America, as well as Central Europe and Southern Africa, though similar rates were seen in some Southern U.S. states as well. There appears to be a dramatic underestimate of covid-19 deaths in many countries. Many of the undercount is likely due to poor record-keeping, but some experts think that some governments have tried to underplay the toll of the Pandemic.

Our estimates of COVID-19 excess mortality suggest the mortality impact from the COVID-19 pandemic has been more devastating than the official statistics show. Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington, the University of Oxford in the UK, and the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil were part of the international research team.

According to the researchers from Sweden, the majority of excess deaths can be attributed to the coronaviruses. If people had visited a doctor more often before the Pandemic, fatal heart attacks that wouldn't have occurred would not have happened. It is thought that survivors of severe covid-19 are at higher risk of dying from conditions like heart disease up to a year later than other survivors.

The kind of mortality data that would allow scientists to untangling the direct and indirect toll of covid-19 has so far been released by relatively few countries. It is likely that we will not get a full picture of the destruction caused by this disaster for a long time.

The researchers wrote that further research and increased availability of cause of death data will be crucial for distinguishing the proportion of excess mortality that was caused by the disease.