Will WHO label India as the country with the highest Covid toll? | India News – Times of India
The global death toll is expected to be more than double the 61.4 lakh counted now. At present, only the US (9.8 lakh) and Brazil (6.6 lakh) have reported more deaths than India.
The report – prepared by the WHO, a technical advisory group (TAG) it set up to count excess Covid mortality, and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs – will count both direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic.
“The excess mortality estimates associated with Covid-19 provide a more comprehensive measure of the impact of the pandemic. The direct measure (deaths directly attributable to Covid) provides only a limited, and in many cases problematic measure,” a WHO spokesperson was quoted by Devex as saying.
Pushback from India
India has already disagreed with the estimate, reported Devex, an independent news organisation that was founded at the Harvard Kennedy School of government in 2000.
The WHO spokesperson told the development journal that the global health body was trying to “engage actively with Indian officials” to address their questions.
The Indian government has earlier also pushed back against reports of excess deaths published in the respected scientific magazines Science and The Lancet.
A TAG member, who spoke to Devex on the condition of anonymity, said the Indian government had asked for the estimates to be published “10 years later”. The WHO clarified that it planned to publish the report in April as planned.
“It would be irresponsible to say let’s wait until the pandemic is over, then we will reflect,” the WHO spokesperson said. “If lessons can be learned now, if lives can be saved now, then we have a responsibility to learn those lessons and save those lives.”
The TAG was set up in February 2021 to assess and advise the WHO on excess Covid mortality around the world. The 33-member group is co-chaired by professor Debbie Bradshaw of the South African Medical Research Council, Dr Kevin McCormack of the Irish Central Statistics Office, and Dr Oleg Chestnov of the Russian health ministry’s informatics research institute.
The three Indian-origin members of the group are Dr Anand Krishnan, professor of community medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, professor Bhramar Mukherjee of the University of Michigan, and professor Prabhat Jha of the University of Toronto.
Devex has partnered with the World Economic Forum, the OECD group of rich countries, and the UN for news. It now has offices in Barcelona, London, Manila, and Washington DC.
The Times of India has not independently verified the claims in the Devex report.
