A selection of our coverage of the conflict from the past week.
A girl views the body of her father, who died of COVID-19, while mourners who can’t visit in person are onscreen.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images News via Getty Images
Health statisticians keep careful tabs on how many people die every week. Based on what’s happened in past years, they know what to expect – but 2020 death counts are surging beyond predictions.
The pandemic leaves its mark in the number of lives ended.
Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
Health statisticians keep careful tabs on how many people die every week. Based on what’s happened in past years, they know what to expect – but 2020 death counts are surging beyond predictions.
It might seem like the constant reminder of how much danger we are in would make us act responsibly, but research suggests the contrary is true.
President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in October 2017 following Hurricane Maria. Trump congratulated Puerto Rico for escaping the higher death toll of “a real catastrophe like Katrina.” A new study suggests almost 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
As Trump fumes about the Hurricane Maria death toll, it’s clear that politics and political considerations often play an important role in how death toll estimates are communicated to the public.