How many covid deaths have there been worldwide?
According to figures complied by John Hopkins University in the United States, which are based on the official data published by individual governments, we recently passed the grim threshold of 5 million covid deaths worldwide. However, as this article explains, this figure is certainly a serious underestimate.
According to a model developed by The Economist, the true figure is at least double that (10 million) and possibly almost four times that (19 million).
If we think about the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918, estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million. Therefore the current highest estimate for the covid death toll is higher than the lowest estimate for the so-called Spanish Flu. in short, they are comparable.
Of course, the world population in 1918 was much smaller than that in 2021, so proportionately the current pandemic is not as devastating, but this way of looking at statistics will not console the families and friends of the dead. And the current pandemic is not over …