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Researchers at the University of Washington in the US state of the same name assume significantly more corona deaths worldwide than official figures indicate.
Estimates by the university institute IHME have shown that 6.9 million people worldwide are likely to have died from an infection with the corona virus, its director Christopher Murray said on Thursday (local time).
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated the number of corona deaths worldwide on the same day as around 3.2 million.
In almost every country in the world there are significant gaps in the recording of deaths, but there are significant differences between countries, the institute said.
The scientists assume that around 120,700 people in Germany died as a result of infection with the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen.
The WHO gives the number at over 84,000.
From a global perspective, Germany is not doing badly when it comes to recording, said Murray.
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In the case of Russia, the official figures (WHO: around 112,000) differ particularly greatly from the Institute's estimate (around 593,600 deaths).
In the USA, the researchers estimate the number of deaths at around 905,300 (WHO: around 573,000).
In the case of India, the scientists assume that the number of deaths is around 654,400, almost three times as high as recorded (WHO: around 230,000).
The researchers derived their estimates from excess mortality: This is obtained by comparing the expected deaths from all causes in a certain period before the pandemic with the actual deaths in the pandemic.
When looking at excess mortality, it was taken into account that there was a shift in the causes of death in the pandemic.
Due to the restricted mobility, there were fewer road accidents.
At the same time, there were delays in treating other diseases.
After taking these factors into account, the scientists estimated the number of deaths that could only be attributed to Covid 19 disease, even if these were not always recorded as such.
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The IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) continuously published predictions of the number of deaths during the pandemic and also illustrated how protective measures such as wearing masks could affect the course of the pandemic.
The White House has cited IHME models on several occasions.
The institute heads the Global Burden of Disease project, a study the results of which are published annually in the specialist journal “The Lancet” and which analyzes, among other things, causes of death, diseases and risk factors in countries around the world.