India again raises objections against WHO's Covid-19 mortality report

On Monday, India expressed at a more public platform its “dismay and concern” on the World Health Organisation’s recent claim that the all-cause excess Covid-19 mortality in India was in truth 10 times higher than the official toll. Earlier this month, the UN health body had stated that India reported 4.7 million excess Covid-19 deaths between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, as opposed to the official toll of approximately 520,000.

“It is with a sense of dismay and concern that India notes WHO’s recent exercise on all cause excess mortality where our country-specific authentic data published by the statutory authority has not been taken into account,” Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at the 75th session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, at WHO headquarters.

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“India would like to express its disappointment over the manner in which the report by WHO on all-cause excess mortality was prepared and published ignoring the concerns expressed by India and other countries.”

The concerns, Mandaviya said, were over the methodology and sources of data, setting aside India-specific authentic data from statutory authorities.

Mandaviya said the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare, a constitutional body having representatives of health ministers from every (Indian?) state, had passed a unanimous resolution asking him to convey their collective disappointment and concern in this regard.

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According to the WHO report, between January 2020 and December 2021, India’s cumulative excess mortality stood at 47,40,894 on an average, as against the reported Covid-19 deaths of around 4,81,000 by the end of 2021.

Globally, the WHO estimate shows approximately 14.9 million excess deaths in the last two years as against the reported toll of 5.42 million.

While the Indian government trashed the WHO report, international experts, who had prepared the document, stood by it. They claimed the Union Health Ministry’s statement of denial carried “wilful inaccuracies.” The researchers said the exercise was carried out in consultation with Indian officials who were well aware of the method.