A study published Thursday in the Lancet journal estimates that 18 million people worldwide have died so far due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a higher amount than official totals.
“Our findings indicate that the full impact of the pandemic has been much greater than what is suggested by official statistics,” said the study authors from the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been just over 6 million confirmed COVID-19 deaths. In the U.S., 961,620 deaths had been reported as of Friday, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
“Although reported COVID-19 deaths between Jan 1, 2020, and Dec 31, 2021, [totaled 5.94 million] worldwide, we estimate that [18.2 million],” actually died due to the disease, said the study. They estimated mortality in 191 countries and territories and found that mortality rate exceeded 300 deaths per 100,000 in 21 countries.
India, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and Pakistan had high numbers of excess deaths.
“Among these countries, the excess mortality rate was highest in Russia,” the study said.
Researchers explained that mortality statistics are a “fundamental” tool for making public health decisions.
“Mortality varies by time and location, and its measurement is affected by well-known biases that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said.
“Brilliant analysis on the death toll for the pandemic's first [two] years,” said Professor Brenden Crabb, director and CEO of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health of Melbourne, Australia, in a tweet.
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