Why we need to count the coronavirus pandemic's invisible deaths

Deaths are a sure indicator of the damage wrought. The trouble is just how bad we are at counting them.

Eighteen months into the Covid-19 pandemic, we don’t know exactly how many people have died. A true global tally is not just overdue. It’s vital. 
 

The task is a Herculean one, given that so much of the world struggles to record basic information about deaths even in normal times. But without a better grasp of the toll, we will strain to assess the precise, real-world impact of vaccines and other preventative measures, or to understand just how lethal variants have been. Absent efforts to fill the gaps even in developed nations, the wealthy will be counted, but too many of