Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Amid coronavirus pandemic there is a count that may surprise you. Hunger has claimed several times more lives across the globe this year than coronavirus did.
Going by the official statistics from the United Nations’ World Food Program as of June 7, 2020, about 12 times more people have died due to hunger worldwide than from Covid-19.
Since January till June 7, approximately 48.4 lakh people have perished due to lack of food as against 4 lakh people who have succumbed to the coronavirus.
Almost entire world spent a large chunk of the first 5 months of 2020 under strict stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic. Yet, almost 2 lakh more people have died from outdoor traffic-related accidents than from the coronavirus disease during this period. Road accident deaths this year currently stand at 5.84 lakh as against 4 lakh fatalities from Covid-19.
The respiratory disease has gobbled up 4 lakh lives this year. Yet, suicides have claimed many more lives than Covid has done since January. So far this year, the global coronavirus death toll has fallen behind the suicide death count by at least 64,000 lives – and the gap could be widening.
How many of us are aware that 5 times more people have died from smoking-related issues this year than from Covid-19. That’s 5 times, no less. About 21.64 lakh smokers have lost their lives due to complications from smoking as against 4 lakh Covid-19 deaths. And these death counts are not new this year.
An overdose of booze, meanwhile, has led to two-and-a-half times more deaths around the world this year than from Covid-19. Fatal complications from excessive drinking have taken 10.83 lakh lives globally as against the coronavirus toll of 4 lakh.
When it comes to what’s killing humans at a faster rate than the coronavirus, cancer beats them all. The various types of cancer put together, have claimed almost 9 times more lives than the coronavirus disease has done. About 35.56 lakh people worldwide have died from some form of cancer over the past 5 months. Again, that’s way higher than the 4 lakh from Covid deaths.
If we list deaths:
Communicable diseases: 56.22 lakh
Deaths of children under 5 years of age: 32.92 lakh
Deaths caused by AIDS: 7.28 lakh
Deaths caused by malaria: 4.24 lakh
Total deaths this year (excluding Covid-19): 250 lakh
The point is, even though a devastating pandemic has gripped the world for almost half a year, the coronavirus is clearly not the main cause of the deaths to have taken place.
There are other ailments and phenomena that have claimed many more lives that the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen has done. Let’s leave the fatality numbers aside and try to make sense of the number of Covid cases or infections around the world.
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Globally a total of around 70 lakh people have been officially infected by the coronavirus since January. In terms of percentage, 70 lakh infected people in a population pool of 780 crore comes to 0.09%.
In stark contrast, Covid has claimed no more than 4 lakh lives in almost half a year. And the coronavirus has been able to infect only 0.09% of the global population.
