Covid-19 deaths

Your latest Covid-19 report (World, October 11) quoted Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health

Organisation (WHO) as saying that the WHO’s ‘‘best estimate’’ was that 10 per cent of the world’s human population (about 760 million) had been infected with the disease (compared to the Johns Hopkins University calculations of 37 million).

Given that at least 3 per cent of infected persons usually die from it, this would indicate that the global death toll is at least 23 million. If so, where are the bodies buried?

At least 150 countries have reported Covid-19 deaths but most do not have accurate methods of counting them, or the number of infections.

Something is missing in the WHO report. Does the Western media only focus on the developed world while the Third World problem is perhaps much more severe and unreported? Lorne Kuehn, Christchurch

Andrew Luddington (‘‘Trump’s recovery’’, letters, October 11) is astray on at least two counts. The US Covid death-rate attributed to President Donald Trump isn’t anything remarkable. The statistics for deaths per million shows the US as mid-ranking (627) and about identical to the UK (637). Peru scores highest on 1010 deaths, with Belgium 875. Belgium would be no slug in the public health area I would have thought.

Luddington also seems unaware that health administration in the US is staterun, not a federal responsibility. After accepting Trump’s offer of a naval hospital ship, New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo filled it with ordinary medical cases, while placing Covid patients in rest homes. As expected, many elderly died unnecessarily.

The first federal response could have come from the Strategic National Stockpile of PPE and medications. Unfortunately, this had been completely depleted during the Obama administration and not replenished.

Rob Harris, Dannevirke