The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its effects on health care systems in the past two years.
世卫组织估计，在过去两年中，有近1500万人死于新冠病毒或是其对医疗保健系统的影响。
The number is much higher than the official death count of 6 million. Most of the deaths were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
这个数字远高于官方公布的600万死亡数字。大多数死亡发生在东南亚、欧洲和美洲。
In a report released on Thursday, the U.N. agency's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the figure as "sobering." Sobering is a term that suggests a feeling of seriousness and thoughtfulness.
在周四发布的一份报告中，这家联合国机构的负责人谭德塞形容这个数字“发人深省”。“发人深省”是个术语，表示一种严重和体贴的感觉。
Tedros said the number should lead countries to invest more in their abilities to deal with future health emergencies.
谭德塞表示，这一数字应该会促使各国加大投资，提高其应对未来突发卫生事件的能力。
How did researchers arrive at their estimate?
研究人员如何得出估算值?
WHO researchers estimated there were between 13.3 million and 16.6 million more deaths, called "excess mortality," from January 2020 to the end of last year.
世卫组织研究人员估计，从2020年1月到去年底，死亡人数增加了1330万到1660万，称为“过高死亡率”。
The health organization said the number 14.9 million is the difference between the number of deaths that have happened and the number that would be expected based on data from earlier years. The number 14.9 million is at the middle of the upper and lower ends of the estimate.
该卫生组织表示，1490万是已经发生的死亡人数与根据早些年的数据预期的人数之间的差异。1490万这个数字处于估算值上限和下限的中间。
They were either caused directly by the coronavirus or were somehow related to the pandemic's effects on health care systems. For example, some people with cancer were unable to seek treatment when hospitals were full of COVID patients.
它们要么是由新冠病毒直接引起的，要么是与大流行对医疗保健系统的影响有关。例如，当医院挤满了新冠肺炎患者时，一些癌症患者无法寻求治疗。
The WHO did not immediately break down the figures to show the difference between direct deaths from COVID-19 and others caused by the pandemic.
世卫组织没有立即分析这些数字，以显示新冠肺炎直接死亡与大流行引起的其它死亡之间的差异。
Albert Ko of the Yale School of Public Health was not involved in the WHO research. He said, "having these WHO numbers is so critical to understanding how we should combat future pandemics and continue to respond to this one."
耶鲁大学公共卫生学院的阿尔伯特·柯没有参与世卫组织这项研究。他说：“获得世卫组织这些数字，对于了解我们应该如何应对未来的流行病，并继续应对此次流行病至关重要。”
For example, Ko said, South Korea invested heavily in public health after it suffered a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015. The decision helped the country to limit its death rate to 5 percent of that of the United States.
柯先生表示，例如韩国在2015年中东呼吸综合征爆发后，在公共卫生方面投入巨资。这一决定帮助该国将其死亡率限制在美国的5%以内。
Data issues
数据问题
The exact numbers of COVID-19 deaths have been difficult to come by because of limited testing and differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths.
由于检测有限，以及各国统计新冠肺炎死亡人数的方式存在差异，因此很难获得新冠肺炎死亡的确切人数。
Official government figures reported to the WHO and a separate count kept by Johns Hopkins University show just more than 6 million reported coronavirus deaths to date.
向世卫组织报告的官方政府数据以及约翰霍普金斯大学保存的单独统计数据显示，迄今为止报告的新冠病毒死亡人数刚超过600万。
In a recent study published in Lancet, scientists at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimated there were more than 18 million COVID deaths from January 2020 to December 2021.
在《柳叶刀》杂志最近发表的一项研究中，华盛顿大学健康指标与评估研究所的科学家估计，从2020年1月到2021年12月，有超过1800万人死于新冠病毒。
The Washington scientists estimated that there were more than 3 million uncounted coronavirus deaths in India alone. And the WHO's new estimate said there were more than 4 million missed deaths in the country.
这些华盛顿大学的科学家估计，仅在印度就有超过300万人死于新冠病毒。世卫组织的新估算称，该国有超过400万例死亡漏算。
Ko said the new WHO estimate might also explain some open questions about the pandemic, like why Africa appears to have been one of the least affected by the virus, despite its low vaccination rates. "Were the mortality rates so low because we couldn't count the deaths or was there some other factor to explain that?" he said.
柯先生表示，世卫组织的新估算还可以解释一些关于大流行的悬而未决的问题，例如为什么非洲似乎是受病毒影响最小的国家之一，尽管其疫苗接种率很低。他说：“死亡率如此之低是因为我们无法统计死亡人数，还是有其它原因可以解释这一点？”
Dr. Bharat Pankhania of Britain's University of Exeter said we may never get close to the true number of COVID deaths, especially in poor countries.
英国埃克塞特大学的巴拉特·潘卡尼亚表示，我们可能永远无法接近新冠肺炎的真实死亡数字，尤其是在贫穷国家。
Although the number of COVID deaths is still much lower than the 100 million deaths during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, Pankhania said it is shameful that so many people died despite the advances in modern medicine and vaccines.
尽管新冠肺炎死亡人数仍远低于1918年西班牙流感大流行期间的1亿死亡人数，但是潘卡尼亚表示，尽管现代医学和疫苗取得进步，但仍然有这么多人死亡，这是可耻的。
He also warned the cost of COVID-19 could be far more damaging in the long term to care for people with long COVID.
他还警告说，从长远来看，新冠肺炎的开销对于照顾长期感染新冠病毒的人来说可能更具破坏性。
I'm Jill Robbins.
我是吉尔·罗宾斯。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，请勿转载，违者必究！)