The Incredible Challenge of Counting Every Global Birth and Death
This text discusses the difficulties of measuring births and deaths in rural Colombia.
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This text discusses the difficulties of measuring births and deaths in rural Colombia.
In rural Colombia, as in many parts of the world, tallying births and deaths is one of the most desperately needed public-health measures. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.
Case in point: India, which reported 481,000 COVID-19 deaths in 2020 and 2021. The World Health Organization found 4.74 million deaths there either directly or indirectly attributable to the pandemic.
The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of six million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Case in point: India, which reported 481,000 COVID-19 deaths in 2020 and 2021. The World Health Organization found 4.74 million deaths there either directly or indirectly attributable to the pandemic.