A few hours ago, I read @wakeupkitty's time to die. Where she talked about how much a society is willing to sacrifice, the current health situation in Netherland, and its government's actions and reactions. These are all related to the pandemic - COVID-19. In her closing thoughts, she stated: "Let's talk about death for a change. Our death because no guarantee certificate for a long, happy life was given at your birth."
I wish to talk about death for a change - Death of my father, deaths from the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria, and global death from the COVID-19 pandemic.
My father's death
October 29, 2017 - the day of his death. Five days from today will mark 3-year anniversary of his death. He died after 6 years of devastating stroke. Father, reminds us of love, care, shelter, support, sacrifices, and many more. His death was a great loss to the family, a great agony and feeling that can’t be described in words. He will forever live on in our memory. RIP dad.
Death from #EndSARS protest Nigeria
The #EndSars protest - calling for good governance and an end to police brutality - in Nigeria began on October 8, 2020. To date, at least 56 people have reportedly died across the country, with about 38 killed on Tuesday,, October 20, alone. The victims include protesters and thugs who were allegedly hired by authorities to confront the protesters. In many cases, there was "excessive use of force" by the security forces in an attempt to control or stop the protests.
Global Death from COVID-19 Pandemic
An important characteristic of infectious diseases is its severity - the ultimate measure of which its mortality rate - the ability to cause death. Thus, one of the most important ways to scale the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide is mortality -death. According to reports, the mortality from COVID-19 tends to be higher in older populations.
Below is a list of the top hundred countries currently with the most recorded deaths from COVID-19 worldwide. The figures given below are correct as of Saturday, October 24, 2020.
My beloved country Nigeria sits at 56th with 66,882 confirmed cases and 1,129 deaths. How true is this report? Many Nigerians claim to just hear figures but have seen no evidence of the reported cases. As no one seems to know anyone that has been infected or died from said disease.
Reference: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
Lead Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay
I believe that a better measure when comparing the deaths from Covid is "deaths per 100 000 population".
However, it is still hard to compare. Not only is there political motivation or monetary incentive (for the hospitals, for instance), but also the populations are different. If a country has more overweight people, the mortality rate is expected to be higher. The same applies to smokers and older people. These effects should be taken into account when comparing deaths in different countries -- which almost inevitably leads to a comparison of different political decisions on how to handle the pandemic. Pretty tricky...