WHO COVID19 death toll: 5 health experts weigh in on India's figures

 The methodologies may differ to a limited extent, but the 10% difference is difficult to explain when a war of words breaks out in India and abroad.

With COVID19 deemed unclear, a new controversy over it has emerged, this time from mortality figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and supported by claims similar  from well-known global medical journals such as The Lancet and Science. 

 The world's leading health authority has announced that more than 4.7 million people in India - nearly 10 times more than official figures show - have died from COVID19. 

 The Indian government rejects the figure saying that WHO's methodology is flawed and that there is plenty of public evidence to ensure the global body is not mistaken. 

 So far, India has officially recorded more than half a million deaths from the new coronavirus. It reported 481,000 deaths from COVID19  between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, but WHO estimates put the number 10 times higher. 

 According to them, India accounts for almost a third of all COVID19 deaths globally, which  naturally pushes the global number up. According to the BBC, in November 2020, researchers from the World Mortality Dataset - a global archive that provides up-to-date data on all-cause deaths - asked for Indian right to provide information. 

 "These are not available," India's main statistics office told the researchers, according to Ariel Karlinsky, a scientist who co-created the dataset and is a member of an advisory group appointed set  by  WHO on estimates of excess deaths. caused by COVID19 worldwide in 2020 and 2021. 

 India's absence from these global databases means that the only  country data available to it are  estimates based on samples. death from all causes. 

 Also Read: CCHFW passes resolution calling on WHO to improperly model to estimate  deaths in India Officials downplayed it, saying not all of the 474,806 excess deaths could  be attributed to COVID19. 

 According to official records, about 149,000 people have died from COVID19 in India in 2020.  CRS is a list of all deaths and births, but does not categorize deaths by cause. It shows an increase of about 4,75 thousand deaths compared to the previous year. The total death toll, lakh 81.16, also includes deaths caused by COVID19. 

 Since then, a war of words has raged between the government and the Congress party, which has requested a commission to investigate the victims of COVID19. Moneycontrol spoke with five leading experts, including Prabhat Jha in Toronto, who reviewed the report with Ariel Karlinsky and came to his conclusions.

There have been cases of overreporting of COVID19  in India 

 I don't have access to how WHO aggregates their data, but even after the second wave there were enough independent reviews to indicate that There are many case-reports of COVID19  in India. There are countless gaps. It's more than obvious. It is likely that sources such as the Lancet have reported numbers, which are close to what the WHO says.