Just on 15 million people have lost their lives in the two years the Chinese coronavirus pandemic has stalked the globe, statistics released Thursday by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) detail.
That grim figure is some 13 percent higher than might normally be expected for the corresponding 24-month period. More men (57 percent) have died directly or indirectly as a result of coronavirus than women (43 percent) worldwide, the W.H.O. data shows.
The measure used by the W.H.O. is called excess deaths – how many more people died than would normally be expected based on mortality in the same area before the pandemic hit after its initial detection in Wuhan, China, in November 2019.
The latest W.H.O. report says these calculations also take into account deaths which were not directly because of coronavirus but instead caused by its knock-on effects, like people being unable to access hospitals for the care they needed. It also accounts for poor record-keeping in some regions, and sparse testing at the start of the crisis.
But the WHO said the majority of the extra 9.5 million deaths seen above the 5.4 million coronavirus deaths reported were thought to be direct deaths caused by the virus, rather than indirect deaths.
Dr Samira Asma, from the W.H.O.’s data department, lamented “It’s a tragedy.” She added:
It’s a staggering number and it’s important for us to honour the lives that are lost, and we have to hold policymakers accountable.
If we don’t count the dead, we will miss the opportunity to be better prepared for the next time.
Some 68 percent of all excess deaths worldwide happened in just 10 countries.
Alongside India, countries with the highest total excess deaths included Russia, Indonesia, USA, Brazil, Mexico and Peru, the W.H.O. figures suggest. The numbers for Russia are three-and-a-half times the country’s recorded deaths.
The report also looks at the rates of excess deaths relative to each country’s population size. The UK’s excess mortality rate – like America, Spain and Germany – was above the global average during 2020 and 2021.
Although the numbers make for grim reading, countries have been able to allay some of the mortality rates.
Countries with low excess mortality rates included China, which is still pursuing a policy of “zero Covid” involving mass testing and quarantines, Australia, which imposed strict travel restrictions to keep the virus out of the country, Japan and Norway.
All of which flies against the initial W.H.O. advice that the world had nothing to fear.
Relatives push a stretcher with the body of a victim who died due to the coronavirus past a funeral pyre at a cremation ground in New Delhi on May 5, 2021. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images)
In November of 2019, health officials detected the virus in Wuhan, China, but seemingly worked to hide how severe the coronavirus strain was.
Moreover, the W.H.O. did China’s bidding on the world stage to make sure its origins were never pinpointed in Wuhan.
“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China,” said the W.H.O. on January 14, 2020.
Months later, in May of 2020, a leaked intelligence report asserted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intentionally engaged in a cover-up over the virus origins, which included the destroying of evidence, to the “endangerment of other countries” as Breitbart News reported at the time.
Read the full W.H.O. report here
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