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Context - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated 4.7 million COVID-related deaths in India.

Details

• A report published by WHO stated that there were nearly 47 lakh deaths, directly or indirectly related to COVID-19, in India in 2020 and 2021.
• India officially estimated only 4.8 lakh deaths related to COVID-19 as of December 2021, which means that the WHO estimate is nearly 10 times the government official count.
• India raised its “objection to the methodology” used.

WHO Methodology and concerns raised by the Indian Government

• The Indian Government has objected to the World Health Organization methodology used for Calculating covid-19 mortality.
• Concerns were raised by India along with China, Iran, Bangladesh, Syria, Ethiopia and Egypt, about the methodology and use of unofficial sets of data.
• The main concern is about how the same statistical model could be used to estimate mortality in a larger country with a huge geographical size and the population also fits in with other countries which have smaller populations.
• Indian government objected that ‘A one-size-fits-all approach and models which are true for smaller countries like Tunisia may not be applicable to India with a population of 1.3 billion,”
• The Government of India highlighted that the WHO model assumed an inverse relationship between monthly temperature and monthly average deaths, which did not have any scientific backing.
• The Indian Government has stated that India is always ready to collaborate with the WHO, but at the same time, India also believes that in-depth clarity on methodology and clear proof of its validity are crucial for policymakers to feel confident about any use of such data.

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