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Finding Mexico City’s real death toll

How two amateur data detectives revealed the pandemic’s impact.

Mexico City’s official Covid 19 death toll did not seem to reflect the full extent of the crisis that hit the country in the spring of 2020 - this is according to Laurianne Despeghel and Mario Romero. These two ordinary citizens used publicly available data to show that excess deaths during the crisis - that’s the total number of extra deaths compared to previous years - was four times higher than the confirmed Covid 19 deaths.

(Mexican Red Cross ambulances transfer Covid-19 patients to emergency rooms that still have beds. Credit: Alfredo Estrella/Getty Images)

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9 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sat 8 May 2021 04:50GMT
  • Sun 9 May 2021 13:50GMT
  • Sun 9 May 2021 21:50GMT
  • Mon 10 May 2021 02:50GMT
  • Mon 10 May 2021 09:50GMT

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