The pandemic toll may be three times greater than reported. That's a lot of lost souls.

[Nevilledog]

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Victoria Brownworth
@VABVOX
Two new peer-reviewed studies show there were THREE TIMES as many deaths globally and in the US from #COVID than previously thought. The numbers are staggering, the details gutting.

Covid pandemic’s death toll was worse than official numbers show

washingtonpost.com
Opinion | The pandemic toll may be three times greater than reported. That’s a lot of lost souls.
The pandemic was worse than the official numbers show, and how much worse is now becoming more evident after two years
8:12 AM · Mar 13, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/13/covid-death-toll-worse-than-reported/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/OgYqq

The pandemic was worse than the official numbers show, and how much worse is now becoming more evident after two years. A new study, based in part on statistical modeling, suggests the loss in lives was close to three times greater than the official data. It is important to understand what happened and why in the greatest public health catastrophe since the 1918 influenza pandemic, which is estimated to have killed at least 50 million people.

The new study, peer-reviewed, was published Thursday in the Lancet medical journal and carried out at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The research, examining the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, found that while the official death toll worldwide was 5.94 million due to covid-19, in fact 18.2 million people might have perished in the pandemic. That estimate is similar to one reached by the Economist in ongoing research that uses different methods. Both studies suggest that the pandemic’s pain in lost lives has been undercounted because of a combination of factors, including neglected treatment for other ailments.

At the core of this is a measure of excess mortality, the difference between the observed numbers of deaths from all causes, and what would normally be expected over the same time period, absent the pandemic. Although excess mortality is an estimate, it can help underscore the true scope of the catastrophe in lost lives, help scientists prepare for the next pandemic and pinpoint vulnerabilities in public health systems.

The official covid death toll undercounts for several reasons. Health-care systems often don’t list covid as a cause of death without a positive test — so, many who died were not counted as covid because they lacked a test. According to the study, before tests were widely available, “many deaths due to COVID-19 among older individuals in high-income countries, particularly in long-term care facilities,” were not counted as covid. Moreover, nearly 4 in 10 of the world’s deaths are unregistered, according to the World Health Organization; in Africa, only 10 percent of deaths are registered, compared to 98 percent in Europe and 91 percent in the Americas. On top of this, covid so flooded health-care systems that many people who suffered other sicknesses could not get treatment and died. They might have survived were it not for the pandemic. Taken all together, the new study declares, pandemic mortality “has been more devastating than the situation documented by official statistics.”

*snip*

[SheltieLover]

1. At least!

[LakeArenal]

2. Please lost souls: Haunt trump and Republicans.

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. I think that's been apparent all along.

Too many direct deaths from covid were under-reported
Plus the deaths of pepole who couldn't get treated because of covid patients and unvaxed morons.

[Hugin]

7. I'm sure some underreported studies will sort it out eventually.

From correlation of the excess deaths data from historical data rates for the co-morbidities.

The gaming of the numbers has been profound.

[Hugin]

6. I believe this to be accurate...

Based on my own anecdotal observations.

Even though most of the movement restrictions were lifted over a year ago the activity levels in my area aren’t even a third of where they were in pre-pandemic times.

Granted I don’t know if the overall patterns of life are still rebounding, but, it sure seems like there aren’t as many people to be about. It’s like a perpetual Sunday morning.

What bothers me even more is I live in a fairly well documented area as far as COVID is concerned. There wasn’t much gaming of the stats here.

[Hekate]

8. KnR