New study finds that widespread underreporting of Covid-19 deaths cannot be explained simply by differences in countries’ ability to count and record deaths. Across 134 countries and territories, an estimated 45%–55% of governments misreported Covid mortality, with underreporting far more common than overreporting. The study provides comparable country-level data of the extent of misinformation for researchers and policymakers. The findings point to a broader lesson beyond the pandemic: strong institutions and an informed public can play an important role in protecting the reliability of official information.
  • jrs100000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    16 days ago

    In the early days of the pandemic I sat down with the numbers that were available. They were not great, even then when no politicians were trying to fuck with them. Any doctor or coroner with a body could make that death vanish from the national statistics for years, without breaking a single rule. It was always a game that was counting on the system having a decade to catch up, and with the medical system itself holding to a gentlemen’s agreement between doctors.

    I suppose that sums up most of the problems with the modern world, and the real anomaly is that we thought medical issues were in some way special.

  • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    16 days ago

    This is comparing to the excess deaths. In the UK excess deaths expected a year were increased by 75,000 a year in 2023 to hide the COVID deaths. Officially it was due to an aging population, which obviously did not increase that much in two years there is a clear step due to COVID. Despite that change there were still excess deaths as the toll reached over 100k a year. The ONS has changed how they calculate it again last year and it’s tricky to undo the more complex hiding approach so the deaths are now officially baked in. So the UKs standing in this isn’t likely accurate, the extent to which the UK went to hide not just deaths but excess deaths was extensive and still is.