[ti:WHO: Nearly 15 Million Deaths Linked to COVID-19] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.92]The World Health Organization (WHO) [00:06.00]estimates that nearly 15 million people were killed [00:11.24]either by the coronavirus or by its effects [00:15.32]on health care systems in the past two years. [00:20.20]The number is much higher than the official death count of 6 million. [00:26.72]Most of the deaths were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas. [00:32.96]In a report released on Thursday, [00:35.84]the U.N. agency's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. [00:40.04]described the figure as "sobering." [00:44.08]Sobering is a term that suggests [00:46.68]a feeling of seriousness and thoughtfulness. [00:51.76]Tedros said the number should lead countries to invest more [00:56.08]in their abilities to deal with future health emergencies. [01:01.64]WHO researchers estimated there were between 13.3 million [01:08.08]and 16.6 million more deaths, called "excess mortality," [01:14.08]from January 2020 to the end of last year. [01:19.32]The health organization said the number 14.9 million [01:23.64]is the difference between the number of deaths that have happened [01:28.20]and the number that would be expected based on data from earlier years. [01:34.72]The number 14.9 million is at the middle [01:38.16]of the upper and lower ends of the estimate. [01:42.32]They were either caused directly by the coronavirus [01:45.76]or were somehow related to the pandemic's effects on health care systems. [01:52.08]For example, some people with cancer were unable to seek treatment [01:57.04]when hospitals were full of COVID patients. [02:01.32]The WHO did not immediately break down the figures [02:05.12]to show the difference between direct deaths from COVID-19 [02:09.72]and others caused by the pandemic. [02:13.48]Albert Ko of the Yale School of Public Health [02:16.76]was not involved in the WHO research. [02:20.88]He said, "having these WHO numbers is so critical [02:25.84]to understanding how we should combat future pandemics [02:29.80]and continue to respond to this one." [02:34.12]For example, Ko said, South Korea invested heavily in public health [02:39.68]after it suffered a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015. [02:47.04]The decision helped the country to limit its death rate [02:50.44]to 5 percent of that of the United States. [02:54.80]The exact numbers of COVID-19 deaths [02:57.96]have been difficult to come by because of limited testing [03:02.12]and differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths. [03:07.40]Official government figures reported to the WHO [03:11.60]and a separate count kept by Johns Hopkins University [03:16.52]show just more than 6 million reported coronavirus deaths to date. [03:23.28]In a recent study published in Lancet, [03:26.40]scientists at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation [03:31.16]at the University of Washington estimated [03:34.76]there were more than 18 million COVID deaths [03:38.36]from January 2020 to December 2021. [03:43.64]The Washington scientists estimated that there were more than 3 million [03:48.68]uncounted coronavirus deaths in India alone. [03:53.88]And the WHO's new estimate said [03:57.00]there were more than 4 million missed deaths in the country. [04:01.76]Ko said the new WHO estimate [04:05.00]might also explain some open questions about the pandemic, [04:09.84]like why Africa appears to have been one of the least affected [04:14.56]by the virus, despite its low vaccination rates. [04:20.16]"Were the mortality rates so low because we couldn't count the deaths [04:25.56]or was there some other factor to explain that?" he said. [04:31.24]Dr. Bharat Pankhania of Britain's University of Exeter said [04:36.76]we may never get close to the true number of COVID deaths, [04:41.20]especially in poor countries. [04:44.76]Although the number of COVID deaths [04:46.92]is still much lower than the 100 million deaths [04:50.68]during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, Pankhania said [04:56.64]it is shameful that so many people died [04:59.64]despite the advances in modern medicine and vaccines. [05:05.24]He also warned the cost of COVID-19 [05:08.64]could be far more damaging in the long term [05:11.68]to care for people with long COVID. [05:15.68]I'm Jill Robbins. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM