Studies of Excess Deaths Push Covid Fatalities Way Up in Russia and Mexico

Russia’s figure of 55,000 Covid deaths has been calculated from deaths known to be from Covid. However, this figure only captures deaths from people testing positive on a Covid test; so, as is the case worldwide, it can be significantly underestimated. Rosstat, the state statistical agency, has found that, from January through the end of November, 2020, there were almost 230,000 more deaths than the comparable period of 2019. Separately, RT reports that Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tatiana Golikova, specified that “more than 81% of this increase in mortality over this period is due to Covid and the consequences of the disease.” This translates to a pretty fair estimate of more than 186,000 deaths. Further, some portion of the ‘non-Covid’ 44,000 excess deaths is likely due to people not going to hospitals and/or not getting the medical care they normally would (e.g., the monitoring of heart conditions). The figure of 186,000 deaths would put Russia third, behind the U.S. and Brazil.