Finding Mexico City’s real death toll
How two amateur data detectives revealed the pandemic’s impact.
Mexico City’s official Covid 19 death toll did not seem to reflect the full extent of the crisis that hit the country in the spring of 2020 - this is according to Laurianne Despeghel and Mario Romero. These two ordinary citizens used publicly available data to show that excess deaths during the crisis - that’s the total number of extra deaths compared to previous years - was four times higher than the confirmed Covid 19 deaths.
(Mexican Red Cross ambulances transfer Covid-19 patients to emergency rooms that still have beds. Credit: Alfredo Estrella/Getty Images)
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- Sat 8 May 2021 04:50GMTÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ World Service except East Asia & South Asia
- Sun 9 May 2021 13:50GMTÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ World Service
- Sun 9 May 2021 21:50GMTÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ World Service except East Asia & South Asia
- Mon 10 May 2021 02:50GMTÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ World Service South Asia & East Asia only
- Mon 10 May 2021 09:50GMTÄ¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ World Service
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When can you trust statistics?
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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life.
