India has questioned the methodology adopted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to estimate Covid-19 deaths. India said that the organisation is applying different yardsticks to estimate the mortality. “India’s basic objection has not been with the result (whatever they might have been) but rather the methodology adopted for the same,” the health ministry said, underlining that India has been in regular and in-depth technical exchange with WHO on the issue. If the model adopted is accurate and reliable, “it should be authenticated by running it for all Tier I countries and if result of such exercise may be shared with all member states”.
The comment followed an NYT report that said India is trying to stall a WHO report on the global Covid toll by disputing the calculation of how many of its citizens died. The article states that the yet to-be-released report has concluded that around 15 million people died worldwide by end-2021 - more than double the official total of six million reported by countries individually. More than a third of the additional 9 million deaths, the report said, are estimated to have occurred in India, which would then put the number of Covid deaths in the country at four million at least. However, NYT said, it was unable to learn the estimates for other countries.
According to the health ministry, the WHO analysis uses mortality figures directly obtained from Tier-1 set of countries, while for Tier II countries (including India), it uses a mathematical modelling process.
In fact, it is not just India, specific queries have been raised by other WHO member states like China, Iran, Bangladesh, Syria, Ethiopia and Egypt regarding the methodology, and use of “unofficial sets of data”, the Union health ministry said.
“It is very surprising that while New York Times purportedly could obtain the alleged figures of excess Covid-19 mortality in respect to India, it was ‘unable to learn the estimates for other countries,” health ministry said.
