884 Hidden Deaths Are Revealed, and More to Come
A tragedy is unfolding in the world’s nursing homes that’s only partly being accounted for in official data.
The coronavirus is revealing deep weakness in health-care systems.
Photographer: Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images
In one day last week, France’s official death toll from Covid-19 rose by a staggering 1,355. The cause was not just the severity and speed of a coronavirus disease that has infected more than 1 million people and killed 50,000 around the world, but also the brutality of fresh data. The new tally included 884 deaths in nursing homes that had gone uncounted since the start of the crisis.
While that should stoke concerns over the quality of the statistics the general public and policy makers are poring over every day — and on the likely under-counting of deaths — it should also alert us to an unfolding tragedy happening on the pandemic’s front lines. It’s not just hospitals that need help, but all institutions that care for the frail and infirm.